THE MAGNETISM 
' OF MYSTERY ' 

FRANK C. M9KEAN 



Class IBXALU_ 

Book JvUxMj 

Coppght^ 

CnBiEiGKT DEPOSJE 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 
AND OTHER SERMONS 



The Magnetism of 
Mystery 

And Other Sermons 



By 

FRANK CHALMERS McKEAN, 
A.M..D.D. 

Minister of the Central Presbyterian Church, 
Des Moines, la. 

With an Introduction by 

JOHN A. MARQUIS, D.D. 



A 

f 



New Yortk Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1922, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



Printed in United States of America 



A677517 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 



JUL 151922 



Foreword 



DR. McKEAN is a virile, upstanding, hard- 
hitting man, and his sermons are like him. 
He occupies one of the commanding pulpits 
of the Middle West, located in the Capital and 
largest city of his state. His ministry in it has 
been of unusual power and success. The people to 
whom he preaches are overwhelmingly American, 
sturdy, straightforward, and of high average in- 
telligence. They demand directness and plain 
speaking in their sermons, as they demand it in 
business or politics. They have scant patience with 
the subtleties of life anywhere, or with the man who 
utters them, be he in the pulpit, the legislative hall 
or the professor's chair. They are an easy people 
to preach to if the preacher has something worth 
while to say, but hard to satisfy with platitudes. 

The sermons contained in this volume are not 
" specials," but represent the average of Dr. 
McKean's preaching. He has a rugged, forthright 
theology, and preaches it without pruning, and for 
this reason his hearers respect and follow him. 
The expository, as well as the doctrinal element, is 
strong in them. His aim is to make the truths of 
the Bible plain, and then force them home with all 
his power. 

3 



4 



FOREWORD 



In reading a sermon one is always interested to 
see the use the preacher makes of it. Some rest 
their case when they have clearly and definitely 
stated their theme, unfolding and illustrating it so 
as to make it understood. Others are not content 
until they have applied and urged and enforced it 
so as to produce decision and action. Dr. McKean 
is clearly of the latter class. His sermons are shafts 
with points, and he hurls them with vigor and sure- 
ness. They will be read with interest, not only for 
what they are in themselves, but as types of the 
pulpit ministry that is making the Church of the 
Middle West 

JOHN A. MARQUIS. 

New York. 



Introduction 



THE sermons in this little book were not 
written for publication. They were pre- 
pared in the workshop of a busy down town 
Pastor, with no thought other than his own con- 
gregation in mind. Every sermon was delivered 
from the pulpit the Sabbath following its prepara- 
tion. The writer never has been able to keep ser- 
mons " in advance." Each week his flock of sheep 
keep his pastures nibbled bare. 

The manuscripts, therefore, will give evidence of 
the labours of one who speaks more than he writes, 
and who writes in order that he might speak. 
They are messages from the heart to his own 
people, many of whom have been kind enough to 
suggest that they might prove helpful to others if 
given a larger audience. No claim is made for 
literary style, but a plain practical gospel is pro- 
claimed with the prayer that some life may be 
strengthened, some heart comforted, and some 
spiritual hope attained. 

If the Christ we all love can be glorified and 
some soul brought nearer to Him, thereby to enjoy 
the peace and rest which comes from a saving 
knowledge of Him, the writer will be satisfied. 
He has no other motive in presenting his pulpit 
product in the printed page. 

F. C. McK. 

Des Moines, Iowa. 

5 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Magnetism of Mystery . . 9 
Rom. ii :33 

II. The Temptation ...... . .21 

Matt. 4 : 8-9 

III. " His Name Shall be Called Won- 

derful " . . . . .36 
Isa. p : 6 

IV. The Transfiguration ... 49 

Matt. 17 : i-2 

V. Absalom .... . . 59 

II Sam. 18 : 33 

VI. Miracles 69 

Acts 2 : 22 

VII. The Friendship of David and 

Jonathan 84 

/ Sam. 18 : 1 

VIII. Judas Iscariot ..... 93 
Mark 3 : 19 

IX. The Good Shepherd , . . 105 
Psalm 23 

7 



8 CONTENTS 

X. The Prodigal Son . 
Luke 15 : 11-32 

XL Palm-Tree Christians . 
Psalm 92 : 12 

XII. Christ's Pre-eminence . 
Col 1 : 18 

XIII. Is There a Personal God? 

Psalm 46 : 10 

XIV. Christ Before Pilate . 

Matt. 2 7 : 22 

XV. Mothers' Day . 

Prov. 1 : 18 

XVI. " Your Reasonable Service 9 
Rom. 12 : 1 



I 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 

" the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways are past finding out! " — Rom. ii :33. 

WE live in an age of mystery. Man dwells 
here below surrounded by creatures incom- 
prehensible in their nature, and by objects 
in the material world which present to his mind 
inexplicable phenomena. Man is a wonderful be- 
ing, and a practical observation of his life in rela- 
tion to history shows that he knows much and is 
rapidly acquiring more knowledge from day to 
day. But what he does not know is vaster far than 
of which he has knowledge. Within the sphere of 
practical knowledge there are many things which 
man may be said to know but which he cannot 
explain. He knows the chemical composition of 
water, but how that useful and delightful beverage 
maintains a combination of hydrogen and oxygen 
at the ratio of two to one he does not know. All 
about him the simplest things have their inner 
workings hidden from his eyes. 

The words of this text have always been a 
favourite verse of mine. From a child I have 
always thought of Jehovah as enveloped in mys- 

9 



10 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 



tery. I have stood gazing at the stars which His 
own fingers framed, and many times have mar- 
velled, along with the Psalmist, at the garb of 
mystery with which He has clothed the firmament, 
and rejoiced as the years have come and gone at 
the wonderful light which a study of God's works 
and His word has thrown about mankind. 

In taking up this text I prefer to use the words 
riches, wisdom and knowledge as each bearing the 
same relation to the qualifying word, depth; so 
that the meaning would be rendered : " O the depth 
of God's riches, and the depth of His wisdom, and 
the depth of His knowledge." This would make a 
discrimination between the words " riches," re- 
ferring to the mercy and goodness of God; wis- 
dom, to His infinite adaptation of man to creation 
and the whole scheme of redemption ; knowledge to 
His all-comprehensiveness, displayed as we see the 
product of the divine mind. 

Truly as man views the kingdoms of this world 
he beholds that which not only appeals to his curi- 
osity^ but excites his awe. As he thinks of the 
silver, gold, lead, zinc and coal hidden away in the 
depths of the earth, mysterious in their formation 
and differing in their uses; as he looks over the 
boundless ocean and sees much of the world's com- 
merce floating on its bosom; as he beholds the 
rivers of the world pouring their waters into the 
sea and yet its boundless expanse not overflowing ; 
as he watches the breakers dash against rockbound 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 1 1 



coasts, he can feel that the voice of the Creator has 
said to that mighty power, " Thus far shalt thou 
come and no farther/' and he can exclaim, " How 
unsearchable are Thy judgments O God, and Thy 
ways past finding out in the Mineral Kingdom." 

As he beholds the trees of the earth and their 
fruits, *the flowers with their delicate hues and their 
fragrance, the food supplies from the vines and the 
herbs, truly he can pause and say " O the depth of 
the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of 
God ; how unsearchable are His judgments and His 
ways past finding out- — in the Vegetable Kingdom." 

As he views the wild animals and their strange 
habits, the ferocious tiger, the lion in the majesty 
of its strength, and all the beasts of the forest and 
field, once again he can murmur with Paul of old : 
** How unsearchable are Thy judgments O God 
and Thy ways past finding out — in tie Animal 
Kingdom." 

But after all the greatest mystery in this world 
is not to be found in the waters of the deep, nor in 
the minerals taken from the bowels of the earth, 
nor in vegetation which has caused the earth to 
blossom like the rose, nor even in the beasts of the 
forest, the birds of the air, nor the fish of the sea. 
The greatest enigma which has ever puzzled the 
mind of man and turned his thoughts toward God 
is none other than Man himself. The duality of 
human existence is the most momentous problem 
the mind of man will ever face for solution. 



12 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 

Behold the greatest of all wonders lying uncon- 
scious in his mother's arms — her infant son. His 
little eyes unaccustomed to light, his ears receiving 
strange sounds, his little dimpled hands striking out 
aimlessly with no knowledge of distance, his little 
lips sending forth a pitiful cry — there he lies in all 
his innocence, in all his frailty, receiving a moth- 
er's love which as yet he does not know enough to 
reciprocate, instinctively taking nourishment and 
unconsciously enjoying sweet repose — there he lies, 
the incarnation of mystery ! Truly there is a mag- 
netism about the psychology of a little child. 
Within his tiny frame there has been breathed the 
breath of life by an infinite God, and the union of 
a human soul with the delicate organism of the 
human body is the greatest of all hidden things. 
Yes, the greatest of all mysteries is human life. 
What a magnetic yearning one's soul has to a study 
of it! 

Now the child grows and his mind develops. 
He grasps ideas. Within that tiny head are 
thoughts which, in years to come, who knows, may 
charm the world in poetry, art or song. Manifest 
and yet undeveloped with all its boundless possibili- 
ties lies that cognitive faculty of the human soul 
which perceives events, grasps ideas, makes com- 
parisons, forms judgments and draws inferences^— 
the intellect — that broad term whereby in one name 
we can sum up the mental powers by which a man 
acquires knowledge; the wonderful God-given 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 13 



faculty which forms one of a divine trilogy, a 
power by which a man knows something as dis- 
tinguished from his sensibility which feels and his 
will which exercises a power of choice. Behold 
the mystery of human intelligence. There is al- 
ways a personal attractiveness about man's mind 
which draws the minds of other men to it for study. 

As that child grows it throws off its infant 
passiveness. He develops responsiveness. Life is 
awakening. A smile soon beams on his dimpled 
face and his tiny hand pats his mother's cheek and 
he coos softly as he cuddles down in her loving 
arms. His childish prattle echoes the words of 
kindly interest from an older heart. It is the spirit 
of love which God gave to the child responding to 
that greatest of all love next to Christ's — a moth- 
er's love. As we watch them make a heaven on 
earth we say within ourselves ; Behold the mystery 
of human affection! Truly there is a magnetism 
about it which attracts even though we understand 
not its mysterious workings in the human soul. 

But that bit of innocence does not always remain 
pure and holy. Dark clouds of passion appear at 
the horizon of his life. Envy and hate develop in 
his heart ; evil thoughts penetrate his brain, and as 
he passes out into the world, buffeted and beaten by 
its temptations and lusts, we murmur. " Behold 
that within the heart of man which you cannot 
explain or define any more than you can throw life 
on a screen in definite outline; that which has an 



34 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 



awful reality, but which is inexplicable. Behold 
the mystery of sin." 

When at last sin conies, the child recognizes it 
just as he recognizes love. For sin like love is 
mysterious, although one is just as real as the other. 
What is that peculiar apprehension a child feels 
when he knows that he has done wrong and in- 
stinctively shrinks from a punishment which he 
feels will follow his deeds if justice be meted out? 
It is that recognition of moral law which, born 
with man, shows him that he has violated an ordi- 
nance outside himself, an ordinance lying deeply 
buried in the heart of Jehovah. As we observe 
that inward shrinking and its final reckoning, as 
we behold that heart suddenly reverse its powers 
and turn from sin to a loving Christ, leaning on 
Him, working for Him, we say, with a strange 
feeling in our soul: " Behold the mystery of 
Conscience with its sense of responsibility. Be- 
hold the mystery of godliness as represented 
in powers of a renewed heart." What drawing 
power has the study of the alarm clock of the 
soul! 

Thus the life lives on until at last manhood 
dawns and it faces the world's work. The prob- 
lems of society are world wide and their solution 
must come from the mind of a world citizen. Fac- 
ing this man is moral principle to be applied to 
statesmanship in reform; the weak to be helped, 
the downtrodden to be uplifted. Thus amid all the 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 15 



cares and responsibilities of a busy career, we 
behold the mystery of human service. 

Now after a life of love and service, of sin and 
righteousness, of responsibility and usefulness, the 
dark veil is drawn, the eyes are closed and the lips 
hushed forever, and as we lay our loved one to 
rest and repeat those well-known words, " Earth 
to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," we stand 
face to face with the dark, unfathomable mystery 
of death whose very darkness and very mys- 
teriousness have drawn men to it throughout all 
the ages. 

Ah, thanks be unto God, death does not end all 
to the faithful. When the spark of life was given 
to that babe back in the years gone by, there was 
kindled there a flame which even the icy waters of 
death could not extinguish. The life born in its 
innocence, after a faith and a service of years, will 
be gathered home a ransomed soul, made clean and 
white in the blood of Christ who came that human- 
ity might have life more abundantly. So as we 
stand beside the open grave that ends Humanity's 
epoch on earth, we murmur once again : " Life is a 
mystery as deep as ever death can be," and we look 
beyond that dark veil into an eternal epoch of end- 
less joy. As we gaze we see the beauties, the 
glories, aye the golden mystery of immortality. 
For the mind of man has ever struggled to solve 
the problem of a future life and the soul's eye has 
ever sought to look out of that wonderful window 



16 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 



of thought-eternity. There is a magnetism about 
this mystery which draws men to it. 

We have dwelt at some length upon the idea of 
mystery and its magnetic attractiveness, because it 
vitally affects our welfare. We cannot understand 
life. From the time when God first breathed into 
man His breath of life, down to this earthly pres- 
ent, neither sage nor scientist, prophet nor seer, 
have been able to tell what life is and the same is 
true of love, intellect, filial devotion, death and 
immortality. And yet that we cannot understand 
these mysteries in life is no reason why man should 
not enjoy his sojourn here; no reason why he 
should not make himself useful to his fellow men 
and by his activity glorify God. The mysteries of 
life are to be used rather than explained. Hence, 
if there is any soul who has been puzzling about 
the mysteries of Sin, the Atonement, the Incarna- 
tion, the Holy Spirit and the Resurrection, let me 
suggest : Why not use these blessed agencies of God 
to edify your life instead of troubling your mind 
about things beyond its sphere? Why begin with 
the greatest of mysteries and pass by the lesser 
things which you cannot explain? Why not deal 
with Christ and God and the spiritual phenomena 
as you do with the kingdoms of this world ? What 
would you think of a man who troubled and wor- 
ried his brain every time he became thirsty because 
he could not understand the chemical affinity of 
hydrogen and oxygen in water? Would it not be 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 17 



better for him to take a drink of that water and 
refresh himself? So when man's soul feels the 
longings which can only be satisfied in a higher 
power, these hungerings and thirstings of the 
human heart, why not allow them to come into 
your life instead of puzzling your mind concerning 
the secret, silent workings of God. The greatest 
ignoramus in all the world can drink water and 
partake of food and receive benefits from them 
just as much as any scientist who has studied the 
chemical action of food stuffs or the different com- 
binations of gases. 

After all, before we begin to doubt the efficacy 
of religion on the ground that we cannot explain 
its mysteries, would it not be well for us to try to 
explain some of the more common mysteries. A 
physician can inject a sedative into your arm and 
later cause you to inhale a small portion of ether or 
chloroform and you will lie on the operating table 
for an hour without suffering any pain, and utterly 
oblivious to the people about you. Later you may 
impart to him the sensations which flowed over 
your soul as you went under the influence of that 
powerful drug, ai^d he in turn might describe to 
you somewhat how you acted from its effects, but 
that is all you know. The physician can say to 
you: Modern medicine has discovered that a cer- 
tain cause will produce a certain effect, but between 
the cause and this effect lies a great gulf of mys- 
tery which modern medicine has not fathomed. 



18 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 



Yet the mysteries of an anaesthetic have not kept 
humanity from enjoying its beneficent results. So 
Christians have discovered that a certain spiritual 
cause will produce a certain spiritual effect, but 
between that cause and that effect lies a mysterious 
labyrinth through which theology perhaps can 
never pass. Mysteries have never kept true 
Christians from enjoying the splendid results of 
religion. There are many practical things in life 
we use and cannot explain. A horse and a sheep 
may graze in the same pasture, and a chicken may 
likewise find its sustenance there. From this food 
hair will grow on the horse, wool on the sheep, 
feathers on the chicken, and no scientist can 
solve the mysteries of that assimilation. He 
may say, " O this is due to the peculiar selective 
power of the cell in these animals or fowls," 
but beyond that the solution lies in the mind of 
the God who made horses, chickens, sheep and 
grass. 

When you introduce a piece of meat into the 
stomach, the juices of the stomach digest that meat 
and it is taken by the blood and given as strength 
to the body. Now the walls of the stomach are 
composed of much the same elements as a piece of 
meat. This being true, why does not the stomach 
digest itself? Physiologists have tried to explain 
this, but in the last analysis they come back to the 
inherent power of the living cell which protects 
itself from destruction — a power given to it by the 



THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 19 



Creator of all life. Yet when our digestive organs 
work as God intended they should work, we enjoy 
our food and never mind the mystery. It is the 
same with the delicate organism of the ear. No 
man can explain just how sound waves are taken 
up and corresponding vibrations produced on the 
small membrane of the ear till at last these vibra- 
tions reach the brain and are recognized as sound. 
That mystery lies with God who made the ear. 
The eye inverts the object on its retina, so does a 
camera, and yet a camera cannot see, neither can it 
discern color. It is the soul that sees and the mys- 
tery of the soul lies with the God who made it. 
We enjoy many of the beauties and glories of sight 
and sound and never mind their mystery. Our 
own sun, as a great ball of fire is travelling and 
pulling the earth and the entire solar system with it 
through space at the rate of twelve to fifteen miles 
per second, twenty times as fast as the swiftest 
bullet. What is ahead and whither we are going no 
one knows save God who holds the world in the 
hollow of His hand. Simon Newcomb has de- 
clared that to him this was the most overwhelm- 
ing thought that ever came into his mind. The 
swift silent passage of the earth through space, 
whither we know not. Yet it does not worry us. 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." 



20 THE MAGNETISM OF MYSTERY 



Let us by means of the powers God has given to 
us study His mysteries but never worry over them. 

In all realms of life we walk by faith rather than 
by sight. That man will soon confront a wall of 
facts and mystery who starts in life with the 
avowed object of accepting as true only those prob- 
lems whose solution is reached through the Reason. 

Religion is real even though mysterious, just as 
life is real, and love is real, and sin is real, and 
death and immortality are real. No man can ex- 
plain them away or solve them any more than he 
can explain or solve the law of gravitation or 
chemical affinity. 

Finally, God expects from every one of His chil- 
dren a life of service, not a life of worry. Instead 
of a mystery, let Christ's newness of life be to your 
soul an inspiration by which you obtain new help 
to throw off the bondage of sin. Let it be a fresh 
courage which comes for the battle against the 
enemies of the soul, a new hope which will lead 
you on to accomplish mighty things through Him. 

" God works in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform! 
He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 

" Deep in unfathomable mines 
Of never failing skill, 
He treasures up His bright designs 
And works His Sovereign wilL" 



II 



THE TEMPTATION 

" Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding 
high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the 
world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All 
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and 
worship me." — Matt. 4:8-9. 

TO the person seeking rest from the daily 
routine of life the mountains have a mystic 
charm. The high altitude, the rarified air, 
the warm sunshine, the cool shade and the rippling 
brooks with their refreshing water have an exhila- 
rating effect upon the human system which is not 
to be found on the plains. 

As we take a retrospect of our own times and 
remember the thousands of tourists who repair 
every year to the mountains for pleasure and rest, 
need we marvel that the mighty men of old used 
these places of solitude and grandeur to recuperate 
their wasted bodies, and feast their weary eyes 
upon the sublime pictures of nature conceived in 
eternity and executed in time by the touch of a 
Master Hand. 

There, away from the cares of the busy world, 
they could listen to the wind as through the pine 
trees it chanted a requiem for a broken heart, or to 
the laughter of the waterfall whose music would 

21 



22 



THE TEMPTATION 



soothe a mind, tired from battling with the deep 
problems of life. 

A glance through the Bible reveals many inter- 
esting mountain scenes. It would seem as if they 
sought a more conspicuous setting in which to 
occur than was afforded by the common plain, for 
almost every prominent peak is immediately associ- 
ated with some notable event in the lives of God's 
great men. 

In the dawn of early history all that remained of 
the human race rested in the Ark upon the lofty 
summit of Ararat. At the beginning of Israel's 
long march from Egypt to Canaan it was to the 
smoking summit of Sinai that Moses retired, and 
there received the tables of stone on which the 
moral law had been written by the finger of God. 
When this man of God laid his armour down, it was 
from Pisgah's towering peak that he was given a 
farewell look down the valley of the Jordan into the 
beautiful Canaan beyond. And somewhere in the 
crags of that wonderful Mount all that is mortal 
of that statesman, warrior, prophet and judge is 
sleeping its dreamless sleep awaiting the Resur- 
rection morn when the dead in Christ shall rise. It 
was from the rocky sides of Mount Ebal and 
Mount Gerizim that the tribes of Israel spoke 
their curses and blessings which echoed down the 
valley of Shechem. It was along the slopes of 
Mt. Gilboa that Gideon and his immortal three 
hundred shouted that Hallelujah war cry, " The 



THE TEMPTATION 



23 



sword of the Lord and of Gideon." On the top of 
Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah witnessed the 
battle between Jehovah and the hosts of Baal, and 
saw rising from the waters of the Mediterranean 
that small cloud like a man's hand which forecast 
the end of the long drouth. It is fitting then, that 
the rocky land of Palestine should be rendered im- 
mortal by the footprints of our Lord and that its 
rugged mountain peaks should present scenes from 
the theatre of His life. 

Amid all the shifting changes of the Saviour's 
remarkable career we find none more thrilling, and 
none which meant more to human destiny than 
when the Son of God stood before the Arch 
Enemy of the world. 

In the northern part of the wilderness of Judea 
as the traveller passes southwest from Jericho, he 
is shown the summit of a small mountain which 
tradition has assigned as the scene of the Tempta- 
tion. It can scarcely be called a mountain, being 
little more than a hill, about the size of Gibraltar 
and perpendicular in shape. It is called " Quaran- 
tania," which means the space of 40 days, because 
Jesus is supposed to have fasted His 40 days 
within the vicinity of this mount. Here the Sav- 
iour had come seeking solitude. Well might He 
feel the need of it as standing at the portal of His 
ministry He contemplated God's plan for His life. 
After 40 days of deep meditation, knowing full 
well the disappointment the world would experience 



24 



THE TEMPTATION 



with His life, He comes face to face with one of 
the great moral crises of His career. It was a hand 
to hand conflict with an arch conspirator. Well 
did Jesus know that if He were to conquer the 
world He must first conquer self. When the first 
man, Adam, was placed in the Garden of Eden he 
was subjected to a great test — a temptation which 
was representative and which decided the future of 
the human race, so the second Adam, the represent- 
ative of a loving God to sinful men, was subjected 
to a great temptation which decided the destiny of 
mankind. A temptation which overcame all that 
the first Adam had lost and gave to the world life 
for death, victory for defeat, 

When John, the Forerunner, baptized His Lord 
with the waters of the Jordan, Christ by the re- 
ception of that Sacrament, signified His willing- 
ness to take up His Father's work. The Tempta- 
tion was the first act of God in that work. We say 
act of God because the same spirit which descended 
upon Christ at Baptism likewise drove Him into 
the wilderness. If Christ were to be the Saviour 
of the world He must first prove by outward act 
His statement, " I have overcome the world." 
Satan was the embodiment of evil. He stood as 
the personal representative of Sin. Unless Christ 
conquered him at the beginning He could never 
redeem the world. If He allowed Satan to triumph 
He never could with authority cast out demons. 
Christ's mission in the world was to enter the 



THE TEMPTATION 



25 



house of evil and destroy its goods. To do this 
He must first bind the strong man. 

In a study of the Temptation the first question 
which naturally presents itself is : Was this scene 
real ? The reality of this scene is the most natural 
thing to believe if we accept the divine mission of 
Christ and the authenticity of the Scriptural narra- 
tive. All the Evangelists describe the Temptation 
as an outward event. There is no shadow of evi- 
dence for a vision, a dream or a parabolic repre- 
sentation. The writers have given us the simple 
story as it was doubtless told to them by their 
Divine Teacher. The Greek word for Tempter is 
" Diabolos," from which springs such words in our 
own tongue as diabolical. It means slanderer or 
accuser. The Hebrew word Satan signifies an 
adversary or opponent. In Scripture the word 
Devil is always used in the singular number pre- 
fixed by the article. Wherever the term " devils " 
is used it has reference to another word meaning 
demons. The man who looks at the world around 
him can scarcely deny the existence of evil as a 
positive working force, if he be of a rational mind 
—so a mere denial of the personality of the evil one 
places a heavier charge of evil upon the manhood 
and womanhood of the world than the average 
Christian cares to make. If a man admits the per- 
sonality of the Good (and most men do), why not 
the personality of the Evil ? There is just as much 
evidence for the one as for the other. I am frank 



26 



THE TEMPTATION 



to say that I have met but few men who brazenly 
denied the personality of Satan, who did not dis- 
play by the outward acts of their own lives that 
they were living witnesses against their side of the 
case. The majority of thinking people in this 
world know from personal experience that they 
are tempted and that by something more than a 
mere influence or a blind force. It is mind against 
mind, intelligence versus intellect, will opposed to 
will. As we proceed in the unfolding of this narra- 
tive I think that all will be able to see how we 
answer the question which no doubt has often ap- 
pealed to you. How could the Divine Christ, the 
Incarnate Son of God, be tempted ? To appreciate 
this we must not look upon Christ as we would 
upon ourselves, for the Saviour was an unfallen 
man. He was sinless and yet He possessed the 
ability to sin. If He had not there would have been 
no temptation. 

Therefore, it was possible for Him to be tempted 
outwardly without inwardly assenting to it. Now 
a temptation is the endeavor on the part of one 
mind to call into action some desire which already 
exists in another. When a man tempts you he does 
not inject sin into your heart. Neither does he 
create in your heart a desire to sin. He seeks 
rather to arouse into activity a desire which is al- 
ready there. Such was the case with Jesus. The 
Devil was endeavouring to call into action a desire. 
Unless a man has an inclination or desire to do a 



THE TEMPTATION 



27 



certain thing there is no temptation for him. I 
have no inclination to drink liquor. I never did 
have. When the fumes of beer and whiskey come 
into my nostrils, the effect upon me is one of dis- 
gust for the business and pity for the poor un- 
fortunates who are tempted. As a boy I was in 
saloons many times. I stood beside the bar with 
fellow companions and watched them drink, but I 
never drank a glass of liquor in my life. For not 
being a drinking man I deserve no particular com- 
mendation because the desire for it is not in me. 
The man who deserves the praise is the man who 
has the desire and yet triumphs over his temptation. 

This desire which must exist is of a two fold 
character. It may be sinful or sinless. Between 
the temptation which came to Jesus and a tempta- 
tion for us today we must be careful to draw the 
line. Sinful desires did not come to Christ because 
there was no germ of sin in Him. Christ was 
like our first parents before the Fall. They had a 
desire to eat of the fruit of the tree. There was 
no sin in that for it was a perfectly natural desire. 
The sin lay in the act which sprung from the de- 
sire, and that act was sin solely because it was a 
violation of one of Jehovah's express commands. 
Had God not placed a prohibitory law around the 
tree in the midst of the Garden there would have 
been no sin in the partaking of its fruit. So in the 
personality of Jesus Christ, the desires which were 
in His heart were perfectly natural desires. There 



28 



THE TEMPTATION" 



was no sin in them. Herein lies the subtlety of 
the Temptation. Why should not Jesus desire to 
rid His mind of the pangs of hunger and that by 
miraculous power? Why should He not desire to 
have angels serve Him in the presence of men? 
Why should He not long to manifest His power 
and authority over the kingdoms of the world? 
Who had a better right to go well fed and be at- 
tended by angels, and exercise authority in the 
world than the Divine Son of God sent as a Sav- 
iour to humanity ? These desires were all right in 
themselves. At the same time to have yielded and 
satisfied them would have been sin. Because God 
the Father had mapped out for His Son the way of 
the Cross. Jesus stood pledged to carry out man's 
redemption, not by miracles to set forth worldly 
glory, but by miracles as a means to an end: as 
witnesses to His divine authority and power. 
Christ's mission in life was not to enthrone Him- 
self as an earthly king crowned with the purples of 
authority, but to redeem mankind by the way of 
the Cross. His was to be a life of humiliation, not 
exaltation: a cross, not a crown was to be His 
earthly inheritance; no place to lay His head was 
to be His earthly lot, not to live in the palace of a 
king. To be sure this life seemed out of harmony 
with His divine self, but it was His Father's way, 
therefore He would obey. 

No one understood this better than the Tempter 
and the Tempted. To obey God was the divine 



THE TEMPTATION 



29 



purpose of Christ. To thwart the plans of God for 
His Son was the object of the Devil. To appeal 
to the pride of Jesus and show how incompatible 
with His divinity was His lowly humanity — to 
brand Him with the scar of disobedience, and over- 
throw the whole plan of Salvation; this was the 
object of the Tempter. It was deliberately planned 
and maliciously done. This was the most likely 
place for the Devil to attack. If Christ would 
yield anywhere it would be here and if He yielded 
the Devil would accomplish His purpose. For to 
disobey God is sin. If Christ had refused by out- 
ward act to take up His cross, it would have dis- 
qualified Him; for humanity is redeemed by a 
perfect, sinless Christ and not by a sinful Saviour. 

This, then, was a life and death struggle. The 
subtlety of Satan was matched against the sub- 
missive, self surrendered spirit of Jesus. Upon 
the result hung the destinies of the human race. 
Therefore it must be borne in mind, that to Jesus 
in the Temptation there was an appeal to desires 
which in themselves were not sinful but to have 
yielded to them would have been sin. To Christ 
there were presented positions in life to which it 
might seem to the casual observer He was justly 
entitled, and yet of which He could not partake. 
The Devil held out the exalted side. God said, 
" To the Crown by way of the Cross, to glorifica- 
tion by way of humiliation.' ' 

With these ideas in mind let us examine the three 



30 



THE TEMPTATION 



Temptations and bear in mind that these are not 
three degrees of one but three different tempta- 
tions. Each must be examined from a different 
view point bearing in mind that the motives which 
prompted all three were the same — the overthrow 
of the Messianic Kingdom. 

Satan's first move was an endeavor to persuade 
Christ to assert His own power rather than dis- 
play a child-like faith and trust. He tried cun- 
ningly to incite Christ to give proof of His power 
on the plea that if He could not save Himself from 
hunger He never could convince the people that He 
had the power to save them. To get Christ to 
throw off His cloak of humiliation which the 
Father had placed upon Him before it was time for 
Him to cast it off, this was the object of the Devil. 
" If Thou be the Son of God"; this condition in 
no wise implied any doubt on Satan's part that 
Jesus was the Son of God. The very fact that he 
was endeavouring to accomplish His overthrow 
shows that he knew all too well with whom he had 
to deal. The idea of the conjunction "if" is 
" since " or u inasmuch " as you are the Son of 
God. In other words the Devil said : " It is be- 
neath the dignity of You as the Son of God to be 
out here in the wilderness hungry when You have 
the power at your command to cause these stones 
to be made bread. Assert Your power ! Get into 
Your true station as a Redeemer! Your suffer- 
ing is all to no purpose. When you return to 



THE TEMPTATION 



31 



Your people they will have lost all confidence in 
You." 

To have persuaded the Saviour to draw on His 
power for relief would have caused Him to mani- 
fest a lack of Faith. Christ implicitly felt that His 
present condition was by the will of God and His 
submission to it was the test of His loyalty to His 
Father. It was to break down this loyalty and 
throw Christ upon His own powers that the first 
taunting challenge was sent forth. 

Failing in this the Devil goes to the opposite 
extreme. He asks Christ to do an act which ap- 
parently would show great faith in God, when in 
reality it would have produced the very opposite 
effect. " If Thou be the Son of God cast Thyself 
down." God is all powerful. If you trust in Him 
He will save You. The world will see Your faith, 
Jehovah will save you and you will have the confi- 
dence of the people and none will deny Your Mes- 
siahship. In other words the act would be an ex- 
periment. Its purpose would be to test God to see 
to what extent He would exercise His power. It 
would have overthrown Christ's life of humiliation 
and substituted for it the life of a miracle worker. 

In the last temptation Satan throws off his mask 
and comes out boldly. In the first two, Satan asked 
Christ to do something under the pretext of ac- 
complishing His divinity when in reality the pur- 
pose was to overthrow it. Now he asks Christ to 
come into open rebellion. He must not only throw 



32 



THE TEMPTATION 



aside His lowly life, and accept a temporal king- 
dom, but He must attain success by doing wrong. 
Christ is on a high mountain. As His eye gazed 
over Judea and into far off Edom, across Arabia 
to the rich valley of the Euphrates, and north to the 
Lebanon Mountains, pre-eminent in snow, and to 
the western cities of Herod, as these visions of 
world wide power swept before His eyes and He 
beheld their price, think you not that there came to 
His mind that thought which later He expressed in 
words, " What shall it profit a man — to say nothing 
of the Son of God — if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul." 

There was no hesitation. No pondering or 
faltering. In clear ringing notes there came the 
answer : " Get thee hence Satan, for it is written 
' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him 
only shalt thou serve.' " The assault was over, 
the Tempter vanquished, and the ministering angels 
came. 

How little some people realize the significance of 
this scene. If Jesus had yielded, His ministry of 
usefulness would have been at an end and human- 
ity would have been crying today : To whom shall 
I go to be saved? That moral victory in the wil- 
derness of Judea made Calvary's cross effectual 
for you and for me. 

Let us present a few lessons from this scene 
which are applicable to every day life. The only 
way to interpret the motives which prompted Satan 



THE TEMPTATION 



33 



is to remember that he knew God's plan of re- 
demption through the lowly life of Jesus Christ. 
He realized that his own kingdom was doomed if 
Christ carried out that plan. So he attempted to 
thwart it at the very beginning. 

The Devil still has knowledge of God's plan for 
us ; how through the life of this same Jesus God 
would take us from the dominion of Satan. The 
Devil will thwart that plan if he can. He will 
come to you with the same allurements, the same 
enticing snares, presented with the same malicious 
intent. Two thirds of the temptations which come 
to us are those which seek to arouse into action 
some desire which is all right in itself, but the 
satisfying of which will sidetrack us from the 
true way. 

Remember that the Devil if he can (and he 
usually can) will attack you in the very weakest 
point in your character. He came to Christ after 
His forty, days' fast with the suggestion of bread. 
He will come to you with something just as plaus- 
ible and just as hard to resist. If there is a breach 
in your wall of defense there the Devil will turn 
loose his battering rams and he will storm that wall 
until he breaks it down or is repulsed. There are 
some temptations which fall as harmless from a 
man's character as arrows from a coat of mail. 
There are others which pierce the heart. The Devil 
does not hold the sparkling wine-cup before some 
man who has never had the taste for liquor, but he 



34 



THE TEMPTATION 



takes some weak fellow who has the taste bred in 
every bone and fibre of his being and when he is 
tired physically and mentally and most liable to 
yield then he holds it out. Our lives are castles, 
our hearts citadels. Some kingdom will rule them. 
It is for us to decide who shall reign, Christ or 
Satan, 

Our Saviour was tempted when He was alone. 
How true it is with us. Most of the great moral 
battles of the individual life are won or lost in 
private ! The man who wins is the man who does 
as Christ did, conquers self. It is well for us to 
deliberate upon what principle shall actuate our 
lives. A man must think right before he can act 
right. He must remember that the Devil paints 
just as alluring a picture now as he did 2000 years 
ago. The pleasures of life sparkle with the same 
brilliancy now as did the cities of the Orient in that 
faraway Jordan plain. The only way for a man to 
do is to follow God and say : " My allegiance is to 
Thee, I will follow Thee, do Thy will and conquer 
in Thy name." 

Overcoming one temptation does not mean that 
others will not come. The Devil only left Christ 
for a season. He came again, but never with the 
same power. So with all of the people of God. If 
we conquer at the first the rest of the way will 
be easier. Conquering temptation makes a man 
strong. The ablest lives in the world are those 
who have been tried in temptation and remained 



THE TEMPTATION 



35 



true. Temptation is a fire which to the faithful 
life removes the dross and leaves the gold. 

If any one were to ask how can I best overcome, 
I would give him the Saviour's reply, " Watch, and 
Pray lest ye enter into temptation." A man must 
be constantly on the lookout else the Devil will 
make a night attack. Prayer must be his prepara- 
tory means of defense. He must do that before the 
Devil comes. No man ought to dally with tempta- 
tion or argue with it. When the foe appears his 
business is to fight else his watching will be in vain. 
Let us fight Satan as Christ did with the word of 
God. It is the great sword of the Spirit which 
never fails. 

If Christ overcame the world for us is it not our 
duty to make an honest endeavour likewise to con- 
quer in His name? If the victory of Jesus decided 
the future of God's plan of redemption, so will our 
victory decide our destiny. 

Let us go forward sharing His sufferings, bear- 
ing His cross, working in His service. Then after 
the suffering will come the glory, after the Cross 
the Crown, after the labour, rest and consolation 
in victory. 



Ill 



" HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED 
WONDERFUL " 

"For unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given: 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty 
God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." 

— ISA. 9:6. 

WHATEVER possesses qualities of such a 
nature as to be awe-inspiring, or sets be- 
fore the world something marvellous and 
extraordinary can rightly be called wonderful. The 
visitor at Niagara stands beside the water of that 
mighty river and watches it silently and swiftly 
drop over the falls into that roaring abyss below, 
then on with a rush akin to the wildest of delirium, 
down that narrow rocky gorge, one set of rapids 
following another with increasing swiftness, 
through the swirling eddies of the treacherous 
whirlpool, and suddenly emerge into the placid 
calmness near Lewiston, and he epitomizes his 
thoughts and feelings into one exclamation — 
Wonderful ! 

As he passes along the roads of our beautiful 
Yellowstone National Park hidden away in the 
heart of the Rockies surrounded on three sides by, 
its grim, gray mountain peaks, some of which like 

36 



HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL 99 37 



ancient monsters, belch forth fire, and vapor, and 
smoke. As he beholds those desolate cliffs rising 
like sentinels bold under the turquoise sky, and his 
eyes watch the L,one Star geyser or " Old Faith- 
ful " spout with clocklike regularity; as he catches 
the majestic sweep of Mammoth Hot Springs, the 
Fire Hole River, the gorgeous water terraces, the 
dashing cascades, and the beautiful Falls, he can- 
not but be thrilled in his soul as he realizes that in 
that secluded spot an All-Wise Creator has left a 
special imprint of His divinity, and he sums up the 
ecstacy of his heart in one word — Wonderful ! 

As his eyes gaze amid the myriad raptures of 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, two hundred 
miles long and a mile deep, ghastly and desolate, 
yet glorified with its tinted strata, its glowing 
colors and its sombre hues; as he beholds that 
stupendous panorama stretching before him amid 
kaleidoscopic scenes, growing resplendent as far as 
the eye can see, now with the gorgeous glory of the 
rising sun, now sinking silently into the arms of 
night — he murmurs once again with strange feel- 
ings in his soul — Wonderful. Yes, wonderful are 
the works of God. Wonderful are the Himalayas 
and the Rockies, as they lift their snow capped 
summits 14,000 feet into the blue. Wonderful, 
the temples of nature planned in eternity and exe- 
cuted in time by the touch of the hand of a divine 
sculptor. Wonderful the dome of day, as the 
heavens glow with the rays of the rising sun. 



38 "HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL" 

'Wonderful the dome of night which sends forth 
its myriads of constellations blazing as beacon 
lights before our wistful eyes and " forever singing 
as they shine, the hand that made us is divine." 
Wonderful are the winding rivers and the peaceful 
valleys; wonderful the minerals in the heart of the 
earth ; wonderful the flowers and herbs of the field, 
wonderful the trees of the forest and the waving 
grain. 

Wonderful is man. Man, with his wonderful 
physical mechanism, and his far more wonderful 
mind ; man, with his marvellous intellect, his acute 
perceptions, his fine sensibilities, his creative 
genius, his keen delicate eye, his sensitive ear, his 
nervous system, his digestive apparatus, his living, 
feeling, thinking soul. Yes wonderful is man and 
his works. Wonderful to see a Leviathan of the 
deep plough its way from New York to Liverpool 
in five days; wonderful to behold a Pullman train 
speed a thousand miles in eighteen hours ; wonder- 
ful to watch the workings of the automobile, the 
linotype and the X-ray. Wonderful to see a great 
printing press, print, fold and count out thousands 
of many paged papers every hour. Wonderful to 
watch a surgeon stretch out his patient under the 
influence of a powerful anaesthetic and then cut 
deep into his vitals for the salvation of life. Won- 
derful to behold an engineer who could think out 
and execute such colossal undertakings as the 
Keokuk Dam or the Panama Canal. We read the 



HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL " 39 



lives of Hannibal, Napoleon and Julius Caesar, and 
we marvel at their military sagacity. We read 
Socrates and Shakespeare and Emerson and are 
inspired by their brilliancy of intellect. We scan 
the careers of Luther in the Reformation and Lin- 
coln during the Civil War. We watch the influence 
of Louis Kossuth on Hungary, Cavour in Italy, 
and Gladstone in the British Isles. We stand with 
head uncovered at the tomb of our great dead at 
Mount Vernon, and as our feelings are quickened 
and our hearts throb we murmur, " These were 
wonderful men. They lived wonderful lives and 
wrought out wonderful deeds." 

Yet amid all the men who ever lived from the 
day Jehovah first breathed into man the breath of 
life, down to these wonderful days and men of the 
Twentieth Century, there is one life, and one career 
and one name, which stands unique and wonderful 
among them all. It is that one about whom Isaiah 
with exalted faith prophesied; who heralded to an 
expectant people the glad tidings of a coming Mes- 
siah, hundreds of years before the event took place, 
" For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is 
given, and His name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
Father, the Prince of Peace." 

Jesus began His life in a wonderful birth. He 
was begotten of God and born of a virgin. His 
birth was a lowly one. He first saw the light of 
day in a manger and not in the royal palace of a 



40 "HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL" 

king. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and 
not in the garb of a baby prince. His cradle was 
not some bedstead trimmed with gold, although the 
wise men laid gold at His feet. His birth was 
heralded by an angel choir which sung an anthem 
of joy at His coming into the world. Of course 
the sceptic scoffs, and the rationalist sneers — quite 
naturally in their attack on the Incarnation, they 
would begin at Jesus' birth. If the Bible had an- 
nounced that the birth of Christ had been along 
the common lines of generation, then these same 
self-appointed critics would have attacked the 
supernatural claims of Jesus and His followers on 
the ground there was nothing extraordinary about 
His life. But let us remember in thinking on the 
historical reality of Christ's birth, that the only 
accounts which we have relate the same fact that 
Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born 
of the Virgin Mary. These witnesses are reliable 
and accurate. Matthew and Luke are accredited 
historical writings. They are attested by genuine 
evidence, and the attacks of generations of railers 
and scoffers have not broken down one iota of their 
authentic character, nor in any wise disproved their 
specific statements as witnesses. When you come 
to analyse the birth of our Lord, that birth was no 
more wonderful than our own. Both are enveloped 
in mystery inscrutable, and the secret of both lies 
in the mind of that God who is the author of life 
and the maker of us all. Jesus' wonderful life, so 



HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL" 41 



different from ours, and yet in many respects, so 
like ours, should lead any thinking man to medi- 
tate on the possibility of His conception being 
different. Outside of the Ebionites and a few 
Gnostics all sects of the early church accepted as a 
fact the virgin birth of Jesus, and no man's relig- 
ion today is hurt in accepting as facts the super- 
natural workings of a most high God. 

As Jesus grew to manhood in that despised city 
of Nazareth, being subject to His parents, labour- 
ing away in a Galilean workshop, He developed 
and gave evidence before the world of a wonderful 
character. Just as the sun gives evidence of its 
own light, so has the character of Jesus left its 
indelible stamp upon the life of the world. It is a 
noteworthy fact with the character of Jesus sub- 
jected to the careful scrutiny of His enemies that 
not one in all the centuries has been able to place 
his finger upon a single flaw in His perfection or a 
single misdeed in His career. His youth was per- 
fect. Like a celestial flower, manhood dawned 
upon Him. The child grew and waxed strong in 
spirit and was filled with wisdom and grace. At 
twelve years of age He amazed the doctors of the 
law, and when His mother expostulated with Him, 
His reply seems to intimate to her that she ought 
to have known from the circumstances of His birth 
that He was not to be like other men. The char- 
acter of Jesus is the perfect portrayal, not of some 
mere prodigy, but of a young man free from the 



42 "HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL 99 



common errors of youth. It displayed before the 
world true moral excellence. Christ was sinless 
and in this he was unique. No other man has ever 
lived thus. No other life has conquered all the 
destructive passions and remained innocent and 
pure. Yet Jesus was no weakling or hot-house 
flower. Surrounded by the vice and wickedness 
of His day, He mingled with men and remained 
unsullied. He was in the world but not of it. No 
one ever thinks of calling Him weak. It has never 
entered the mind of any critic to ask Jesus of 
Nazareth to manifest the spirit of repentance in 
His life. His piety was not mere assumption and 
yet in all of His record there is never a word of 
confession of wrong-doing, no admitting of delin- 
quencies, never a look of contrition on His coun- 
tenance. We never think of Christ as struggling 
with the evils of His day and succumbing to them. 
He declared that He was without sin, and no man 
ever disputed the claim, neither has the Nazarene 
ever had it suggested concerning Him that He was 
tinctured with egoism or conceit. He asked people 
to believe in Him as the Son of God. He declared 
openly that He was the light of the world. He 
boldly announced that His coming into the world 
brought a man greater than Solomon who had 
always been the par excellence of wisdom in the 
Jewish mind. Yet no one has ever disputed His 
claim to sinlessness or have the sceptics in the past 
or present been able to say aught against His char- 



HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL " 43 



acter. Ah, no wonder at the close of that great 
day on Golgotha's slope as the Roman Centurion 
gazed upon the face of the dead Christ he gave 
voice to the feelings in his heart, " Truly this was 
the Son of God." He had seen men die before. 
He was hardened to the scenes about a cross. Well 
he knew that such calmness and self-possession, 
such forgiveness and love, such composure and 
patience in suffering, with a full knowledge of His 
innocence, was not forthcoming from a mere man. 
Faith is a conviction of mind based upon evidence. 
The wonderful character of Jesus is the best argu- 
ment for His divine nature. In other words Chris- 
tianity's strongest proof as to its source and its 
right permanently to endure lies in what Christ was 
and did and in what His religion is and continues 
to do now. The regenerated soul is the best evi- 
dence that Christianity works through the spirit of 
God, for a tree is known by its fruits, in religion 
as well as in an orchard. 

Again the man Christ Jesus exemplified the 
truth of Isaiah's prophecy, " His Name shall be 
called Wonderful," in the Gospel of Glad Tidings 
He proclaimed. Jesus was the greatest and the 
most wonderful preacher of all time. In the 
history of religious thought many powerful ser- 
mons have fallen from the lips of mighty men of 
God. John the Baptist heralded the advent of a 
Redeemer in his world-wide theme of repentance 
unto life. That was a wonderful sermon which 



44 "HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL" 



Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Paul 
thrilled the hearts of the degenerate Greeks as from 
Mars Hill he enlightened them concerning their 
unknown God. Irseneas and Tertullian, Ignatius 
and Poly carp, Justin Martyr and Clement of Rome, 
will shine forever as beacon lights in the early 
Christian Church. But amid all the majestic per- 
sonalities, who throughout the ages have stood ex- 
pounders and defenders of the Christian faith, 
there is no preacher who can be compared to the 
Nazarene, and no sermon which can measure up to 
those short, terse, epigrammatic utterances which 
fell from the lips of our Lord as standing on the 
Horns of Hattin He delivered to the waiting multi- 
tude His wonderful Sermon on the Mount. That 
sermon is the greatest platform of living principles 
ever proclaimed by mam It sets forth what the 
true character of God's people should be. It 
teaches how the essence of the moral law may be 
realized. Jesus as a preacher always appealed to 
the judgment of men, and He always made His 
points clear by some simple illustration which any 
child might understand. Back of all His sermons 
was the Man who knew the reality of religion, and 
the importance of giving expression to its principles 
in everyday living. Christ's sermons always ap- 
pealed to right living. They had a proverbial style 
about them which drove home the truth. In all of 
His preaching, moral 'duty was epitomized, and 
love was taught as a principle, not as a mere pre- 



"HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL " 45 



cept. Christ inquired, not so much concerning the 
acts of a man's life as into the motive which 
prompted those acts. To obey the teaching and 
preaching of Jesus, a man's life must be genuine, 
for His sermons were an everlasting proclamation 
of the realities of life in religion. If ever the time 
comes when all the hearts of men will listen to the 
Nazarene, then will dawn that glad day when the 
will of God will be done on earth as it is done in 
Heaven. 

While Jesus of Nazareth had a wonderful birth, 
portrayed a wonderful character, was a wonderful 
preacher of righteousness, He died a wonderful 
death. The cross of Calvary marks the pivotal 
point in the life of our Lord. The more we study 
the scenes of Golgotha, the more we can appreciate 
what Paul meant when he longed to " know " 
Christ and the "Fellowship of His Suffering." 
Jesus endured all the horrible and ghastly, all of 
the dizziness, cramp and intolerable pangs of thirst 
which that inhuman method of execution brought 
to all its victims, and remember that He endured it 
all for you and for me. He died a voluntary, 
vicarious sacrifice, that all humanity might be 
drawn to Him. There in His ignominy, between 
two thieves, He hung from nine o'clock in the 
morning until noon. Then a merciful Heavenly 
Father sent darkness over the scene until three 
o'clock. During those six hours there fell from 
His lips some of the most heart searching utter- 



46 " HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL M 

ances which ever fell from the lips of man. 
When at last His spirit was set free, the veil of 
the temple was rent in twain. The Holy place 
and the Holy of Holies were no longer separated, 
and there was a great earthquake which signi- 
fied that nature sympathised with the Son of 
God in His great struggle, and Humanity now 
had access to the holiness of God through a loving 
Saviour. 

But I would not close without some comment 
upon the wonderful influence which Jesus and His 
religious principles have had upon modern life. 
More than nineteen centuries have passed since 
Jesus died and rose again. In all that time, in mil- 
lions of lives, He has been their inspiration and 
hope. Today an innumerable multitude sing His 
praises in loving sincerity and worship. His per- 
sonality has inspired the world's most wonderful 
music, and around His sacred head clusters the 
greatest monuments from the genius of poet, 
painter and sculptor. Have we ambition to gain 
the realm of ideal character? Then we point our 
life straight to the Son of God. Would we in- 
crease our knowledge of religion? Then to the 
teachings of Jesus we would go for our textbook 
in life. Would we have a higher, truer conception 
of God? 'Tis the life of God's own Son which 
gives us the purest revelation of what God is and 
what He desires us to be. How true was Sidney 
Lanier's Crystal Song; 



" HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL " 47 



"But Thee, but Thee, Oh, Sovereign Seer of time 
But Thee, Oh poet's poet, wisdom's tongue 

But Thee, Oh man's best man, Oh love's best love." 

Shall we not this day, everyone of us, make this 
wonderful Saviour our very own. Shall we not 
realize that all that is pure and holy, all that is just 
and good, all that makes for righteousness and 
propitiation radiates from the life of this wonder- 
ful redeemer, the prediction of whose coming was 
heralded by this mighty prophet of old ? Shall we 
not recognize that the life of Jesus was a fact — a 
fact which vitally affects mankind's life and faith? 
Shall we not make this wonderful personality more 
precious for our lives as the years roll by, for, take 
the Cross out of religion and humanity, poor and 
sin-cursed, is groping through the darkness of this 
world with no place to lay its burden down. Take 
away Jesus with His expiatory sacrifice and man is 
thrown back upon his own resources and to re- 
demption through good works. Take away the 
Cross and the ills of society must find their remedy 
in something man can do, rather than in something 
man has had done for him. Take away the Cross 
and you nullify the life of Christ, repudiate the Bible 
statement concerning His mission, and count for 
naught the faith of Christians who have lived and 
died with a triumphant hope in the Prince of Glory. 

But, thanks be unto God, the Saviour still lives. 
The Cross is no longer a gloomy place, but repre- 



48 " HIS NAME CALLED WONDERFUL " 

sents the source of true spiritual life. As we wor- 
ship may we take Him as He is and at last we shall 
see Him as He is, and then we shall be privileged 
to join with that innumerable company of the re- 
deemed and sing around the great white throne 
with those who are now " Saints in Light." 

" All hail the power cf Jesus name 
Let angels prostrate fall 
Bring forth the royal diadem 
And crown Him Lord of all s " 



What a wonderful Saviour! 



IV 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and 
John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high 
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and 
His face did shine as the Sun, and His raiment was 
white as the light/'— Matt. 17:1-2. 

IN the Vatican at Rome there hangs a most 
beautiful picture. It is the last painting of that 
world-renowned artist, Raphael. Faith Lati- 
mer tells us the artist spent years of study upon this 
picture, and it was scarcely finished when he died. 
While he lay ill the picture was hung before him, 
that his eyes might feast upon his own handiwork, 
and his constant thoughts might be upon his glori- 
fied Saviour. After his death the picture was hung 
above his lifeless body, where for days vast crowds 
came to honour his wonderful genius, as they 
gazed with reverence at the dead artist, and his 
wonderful painting of the Transfiguration of 
Jesus, 

Next to the Resurrection the Transfiguration is 
perhaps the most wonderful scene in the life of our 
Lord. Indeed it is most intimately related to the 
event of that glorious Easter morn, and is the only 
scene in the life of Christ which can be likened to 
it. In the Resurrection there will be an eternal 

49 



50 THE TRANSFIGURATION 



likeness of Jesus* face the light of which was but 
temporarily revealed to the eyes of the disciples in 
His Transfiguration. The latter scene was one of 
the means used whereby the companions of Christ 
could see through His death and behold the glories 
which would result in the life to come. The power 
which caused this scene was none other than the 
power used by Christ in conquering the last 
enemy. The reason Christ asked His disciples to 
keep the event secret until after His Resurrection 
was that its real significance might be set forth by 
His rising from the dead. The light which shone 
from Christ's face on the summit of that mountain 
was the same light which scattered the darkness of 
Joseph's tomb and brought forth an eternal day, 
and has enabled humanity ever since to cry, " O 
Death where is thy sting, O Grave where is thy 
victory?" 

The Transfiguration was the manifestation of 
the glory of God in Christ. Momentarily the veil 
was drawn and there was vouchsafed to men the 
light of that One who now sits on the throne of 
Heaven, on whose vesture and thigh is written, 
" King of Kings and Lord of Lords." The Trans- 
figuration is one outstanding scene where Christ's 
humanity fails to hide His divinity. 

To deny the Transfiguration as a real scene is to 
play fast and loose with the Word of God. This 
event is described by Matthew, Mark and Luke, 
and Peter in his second epistle expressly testified 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 51 



that in preaching the religion of Jesus he was not 
following cunningly devised fables, but he was an 
eyewitness to Christ's majesty and heard the voice 
from Heaven testify to the Saviour as the Son of 
God when he was with Him on the Holy Mount. 
The gospels of the Evangelists and the writings of 
Peter are accredited books with just as much testi- 
mony and proof as to their authenticity as any 
other early writing. The man who sweeps this 
scene aside with the blunt denial, " I don't believe 
it," can with equal propriety make the same state- 
ment concerning any other well established histori- 
cal fact. 

To appreciate the Transfiguration and the 
motives which prompted it we must have some 
knowledge of the events which led up to it. In 
His miracle of the feeding of the Five Thousand 
Christ had reached the zenith of His power. After 
witnessing that event the people desired to make 
Him their earthly King. To escape this He sent 
the multitudes away, His disciples enter boats upon 
the lake, while He retires to a mountain to pray. 
From this time forth He seems to take up events 
which lead to the Cross. His walking on the 
water, His calming the storm, His casting out 
demons, and His triumphant march through Gen- 
nesaret, are familiar scenes in His life. Realizing 
that His death was no great distance in the future, 
and knowing that His disciples but vaguely under- 
stood its meaning, Christ retires from Capernaum 



52 THE TRANSFIGURATION 



and for six months seeks solitude. There away 
from the busy city and its thronging multitudes, 
He might think upon God's plan and instruct His 
disciples in it. So He leaves Galilee and passes 
North West to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. 
There He cures the daughter of the Syro- 
Phoenician woman. Leaving the sea coast He re- 
turns once more to the lake. In the regions of 
Decapolis He heals the deaf and dumb and feeds 
the Four Thousand with the seven loaves and the 
few fish. Crossing the Lake to Bethsaida He 
restores sight to a blind man and with His little 
company journeys North to the sources of the 
Jordan, and we find Him in the vicinity of 
Cesarea-Philippi. During all these wanderings 
Christ had no particular headquarters. He realized 
that the shadow of the Cross was slowly turning 
until it would stand over Him. In all these wan- 
derings the Master has been likened to a deer with 
an arrow in its side, hurrying to and fro seeking a 
place to die. Death had not come, but the fatal 
shaft had been driven and it was only a question 
of time. 

Here on the very borders of the Holy Land, 
Christ drew from Peter that great confession, 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God/' 
which stands today, as Christ said it would stand, 
one of the foundation rocks of the Christian 
Church. Being sure that amid all the strange 
rumors which were afloat concerning Him, the dis- 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 53 



ciples had a clear understanding that He was in- 
deed their Messiah, from this time forth Jesus 
began His special instructions to them concerning 
His approaching death. What followed during the 
next six or eight days we do not know, save that 
there was a battle going on in the minds of the 
disciples how their divine Master could die and 
still accomplish His Mission of Salvation. 

For one thousand years tradition assigned Mount 
Tabor as the scene of the Transfiguration. Inas- 
much as this mountain is a long distance from 
Cesarea-Phillippi, which in the days of Christ was 
probably a fortified town, many scholars are in- 
clined to the belief that the high mountain spoken 
of here has reference to Mount Hermon, at whose 
base lies Cesarea-Phillippi. Towering over the 
sources of the Jordan its snow-capped peak rises 
nine thousand feet above the level of the Mediter- 
ranean. At the foot of this mountain Christ leaves 
the nine, and with Peter, James and John begins 
the ascent. In taking these three He showed not 
favoritism but justice. He took them because they 
were the furthest advanced in the teaching of His 
school, and were in line of promotion. He needed 
them as witnesses of what was to follow, and He 
desired that in the future they could explain to the 
others what now seemed so vague in their minds. 
Who doubts that in the loneliness of that hour 
Jesus longed for human sympathy, which might 
have been poured forth could those disciples have 



54 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 



entered into the true reality of His life and have 
grasped the deep significance of His death. 

From the description given by Luke it must have 
been evening when they went apart. As they 
wended their way along the gigantic slope of Her- 
mon the evening shadows were beginning to fall, 
and they could behold the glories of a mountain 
sunset. What a magnificent scene would greet 
their eyes ! The little village nestled in the valley 
below ; above them glistened the snow in the even- 
ing sun ; while far as the eye could see stretched the 
fertile plain of the Jordan and the valleys of the 
Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus. And as 
that mountain sank into the arms of night amid its 
solitude and grandeur, Christ and His disciples held 
a prayer service. As Christ prayed the fashion of 
his countenance was changed. He no longer ap- 
peared in His natural humanity. His face shone 
as the brightness of the sun. Those disciples, 
aroused from their stupor, beheld the likeness of a 
being in His glorified state. And behold two men 
were with him Moses, the Lawgiver, and Elijah, 
the Prophet. One had departed this life in the 
mountains, and was buried by God, and the other 
had been translated. They now appeared in glory 
and conversed with Christ about the Redemption 
which He was to work out on Calvary's Cross. 
What more fitting than that these characters should 
have appeared with Christ. Moses, the giver of the 
Law and the founder of the old dispensation — a 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 55 



type of Christ who had predicted His coming, and 
had instituted sacrifices which Christ's death would 
fulfill, how fitting that he should discuss that 
death now ! How appropriate that he could behold 
the Law of Love and the Love of Law. He had 
seen the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, now 
he saw the divine sacrifice standing before the 
world's altar drawing the world unto Him. 

Just as there was present with the Saviour the 
great leader of the Israelites by the stroke of whose 
rod the Red Sea was divided, so there was present 
that mighty prophet of old whose mantel parted 
the waters of the Jordan. Sinai and Carmel came 
together on beautiful snow-capped Hermon and 
were fulfilled. 

As these three disciples saw, as it were, the gates 
of heaven ajar, and beheld the glory of the re- 
deemed. Peter, true to his disposition, speaks and 
says, " Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us 
build three tabernacles, one for Thee, one for 
Moses, and one for Elias." 

The first part of Peter's statement was true: It 
was good for them to be there. But Christ's mis- 
sion was not to perpetuate that scene and proclaim 
from lofty Hermon the realization of the Kingdom 
of God. No, He was to descend and by suffering 
and death work it out on Calvary's Cross. 

Peter receives no reply, but from out the cloud 
which enveloped them there came the voice of God 
which had been speaking down the centuries: 



56 THE TRANSFIGURATION 



"This is my beloved Son. Hear Him." Soon 
they see no man save Jesus only, and the Trans- 
figuration was ended. The disciples go down from 
that glorified scene to struggle and to preach in His 
name, and Jesus as He passed down began His 
descent into the valley of Humiliation and Death. 

Now, let us try to observe and inquire into the 
real purpose of this scene. In addition to the com- 
fort which the Saviour drew from a knowledge 
that He was doing His Father's will, the primary 
motive back of the Transfiguration was the enlight- 
enment of His disciples. From this time forth 
they would understand how history, past and 
future, meets at the Cross. They had been troubled 
concerning the announcement of His death, but 
after this experience they had a knowledge of 
what complete Redemption meant. It revealed to 
them that Heaven was likewise interested in the 
Mission of their Master and had furnished living 
specimens of the Salvation He was to work out. 
The knowledge of this glorified scene will account 
in some measure for the fervency with which they 
preached in later years the doctrine of the Cross. 

Then this scene manifested to them the reality of 
a life beyond the grave. It convinced them later 
when they saw events in the light of the Resur- 
rection that as humanity had borne the image of 
the earthly it should likewise bear the image of 
the heavenly. 

This scene can teach us many of the same les- 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 57 



sons. Many of the doctrines which perplex our 
minds will banish if we go apart with Christ. 

Hawthorne has likened Christianity to a great 
cathedral with beautiful windows. From without, 
no one could obtain the slightest conception of the 
radiance of the glories within. So it is with our 
Master. Only by entering into the realms of His 
largeness of heart — only by partaking of the fel- 
lowship of His suffering will there ever be revealed 
to the human soul the true glories of Redemption. 

Peter and James and John had to make the most 
of this scene for their lives, otherwise it would 
have been nothing to the world through them. 
William Mathews has well said that " A great 
occasion is worth to a man exactly what his ante- 
cedents have enabled him to make it." Unless a 
man has trained himself for his chance, the chance 
will only make him ridiculous. So let us by faith- 
ful duty day by day prepare our minds and hearts 
for the great spiritual occasions when they come, 
and rest assured that like the greatest affairs of 
life, they will come upon us when we least expect 
them, and we must on the spur of the moment be 
ready to meet them and take advantage of them 
when they come. 

It was necessary for these disciples to descend 
into the valley and take up the common duties of 
daily life in order that for them this vision might 
have the fullest expression. 

In Longfellow's tales of a Wayside Inn, a Monk 



58 



THE TRANSFIGURATION 



had been praying and longing for a better life, and 
above all that He might see His Lord. One day a 
vision came filling the whole room where he was 
with its radiance. At that moment the convent bell 
tolled the hour for him to go forth to his daily 
task of feeding the poor. He hesitated : Should he 
leave that celestial scene and go forth to a crowd of 
ragged beggars at the gate? Then he heard a 
voice say : 

" Do thy duty, that is best, 
Leave unto thy Lord the rest." 

He went forth. He fed the beggars and re- 
turned. Behold the vision was still there and a 
voice said unto him : 

" Hadst thou stayed I must have fled." 

So beloved, many a man has lost his vision be- 
cause he did not answer its deepest purpose by 
doing the daily rounds of hard appointed tasks. It 
is through daily service that Christ best reveals 
Himself. 

Salvation is worth all it cost. Our mission is to 
toil, to serve, to hope, to love, and after while if we 
are faithful we shall behold the King in His beauty 
and see Him face to face, transfigured forever. 



V 



ABSALOM 

" And the king was much moved, and went up to the 
chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus 
he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, 
would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my 
son!"— II Sawc. 18:33. 

THERE is one fact which may be observed 
concerning the Bible and its relation to prac- 
tical life which adds weight to the proof of 
its truthfulness. The Bible never fails to record 
the faults of men whose characters it portrays. 
Some of its greatest heroes made terrible mistakes 
at critical times, but these are given their full meas- 
ure of comment that the human nature side of the 
Bible might be shown and its lessons serve as a 
warning, as well as a blessing. Of all the acts 
recorded in the wonderful life of Moses special 
prominence is given to his act of disobedience to- 
gether with its direful results. Peter was an 
Apostle dear to the Saviour's heart, and perhaps 
the greatest preacher in the Apostolic circle, yet 
with all the records of his sermons and his mighty 
works, his denial of our Lord is the best known 
incident in his Kfe. David was the greatest king 
Israel ever produced, but no attempt has been made 
by the writers of Holy Writ to cover up his sins. 

59 



60 



ABSALOM 



So as we read the story of Absalom there is some^ 
thing about its pictures so true to life, so natural 
in their applications to the affairs of today as to 
convince the reader that their author has presented 
a truthful narrative of events which transpired in 
that ancient court of Israel. 

It has been said that " every holy life is an ex- 
hortation couched not in words alone, but in living 
deeds as well, calling us to a like consecration." It 
can be likewise affirmed that every ungodly life pre- 
sents to us a series of living deeds which should 
serve as a warning to all who desire to do right for 
the satisfaction which doing right gives. The sad 
tragedy in the career of David's young son offers 
to the manhood of today a living illustration that a 
dishonest life does not pay whether it be lived in a 
royal dwelling house or in a more humble abode 
in the common walks of life. 

One of the saddest sights in all the world is to 
look into the face of a young man, who, in the full 
enjoyment of the advantages of power and wealth, 
has so abused those powers as to ruin his own life 
and heap shame and ignominy upon his family. 
To be disappointed in a dear earthly friend, to feel 
that one has failed to be loyal to the trust placed 
upon him, will bring to any sensitive soul a pang 
hard to bear. But, oh what a bitter ingredient must 
be added to this cup of woe when a father finds 
that this disloyalty is in the heart of his own boy — 
the child of his tenderest care, in whom there is 



ABSALOM 



61 



bound up all his hopes for the future, a disloyalty 
which has gone down into death and added to it 
the hopelessness of separation. 

Absalom was the third son of David and was 
born at Hebron, where David first established his 
throne. His mother was the daughter of Talmai, 
the king of Geshur. During Absalom's boyhood 
David removed his capital to Jerusalem and man- 
hood dawned upon the young Prince amid the 
splendours of his father's court. Inheriting from 
his parents a faultless form and a beautiful coun- 
tenance, he had the added gift of a commanding 
presence so essential to the leadership of his age. 
He is reputed to have been the handsomest man in 
the entire kingdom, carried with it the common 
failing of making him inordinately vain. Theodore 
Munger has declared, "that one of the master- 
pieces of human composition, Dante's Divine Com- 
edy, is not to be interpreted altogether as an at- 
tempt to picture the next world. That it is rather 
an allegory of human life with its scenes as the 
souls of men. That the marvellous imagery, the 
descent into the cavern of the Inferno, the hills of 
Purgatory and the rose of Paradise, are but moral 
facts and processes in the human heart put in the 
form of eternity." If there be any truth in such a 
statement, what an illustration is the life of Absa- 
lom ! Like so many rich men's sons he was doubt- 
less allowed to have his own way in his youth and 
being reared in the atmosphere of royalty with all 



62 



ABSALOM 



its equipment at his command, he grew to manhood 
free from care. His father was too busy with the 
affairs of the kingdom to throw about the life of 
his son that proper restraint that any young man 
must have when his character is dropping into its 
mould. In fact it must be remembered that Absa- 
lom grew to manhood at that period when the 
moral life of David was under a cloud and the 
mind of the boy must have been poisoned by the 
scandal in his father's court. When Absalom was 
about twenty years of age. his half brother Amnon 
criminally dishonoured his sister and for that act 
he forfeited his life at the hands of Absalom, Al- 
though there was great provocation for the murder, 
yet the young prince fearing his father's anger fled 
to the court of his grandfather, the king of Geshur. 
There he remained in exile for three years until by 
the diplomacy of Toab, one of David's generals, he 
was allowed to return to Jerusalem and was ulti- 
mately restored to the favour of his father. But 
no sooner was this reconciliation effected, than Ab- 
salom began to plot against his father with all the 
craftiness of an unscrupulous politician, for the 
purpose of usurping the throne. A study of the 
conditions at the time will display some of the 
motives which prompted the rebellion. 

For three years Absalom had been in idleness, an 
exile from his father's court. During that time his 
youthful mind had pondered over what he consid- 
ered a gross injustice on the part of his father. 



\ 

ABSALOM 



63 



His mother being the daughter of a heathen king, 
the boy had inherited some of her religious in- 
stincts, and as a result his life was out of harmony 
with the religion of the king's court. But most of 
all there seems to be no reason to suppose that 
Absalom was in ignorance of the promise which 
David had made to Bathsheba — that Solomon, then 
a lad of but nine years, was to be the ultimate suc- 
cessor to the throne. Naturally Absalom would 
consider this unfair to himself not merely because 
he was the elder son, but because through his veins 
there coursed the blood of royalty from his mother 
as well as from his father. During David's thirty 
years' reign there had naturally arisen certain con- 
ditions in the Government which would aid Absa- 
lom in his plot against the crown. Internal dissen- 
sions had arisen among the people and as no wars 
were in progress in Israel there was nothing to 
solidify a sentiment of loyalty to David. The king 
in his declining years had gradually disappeared 
from the public eye, and much of the administra- 
tion of justice had fallen to the lot of his trusted 
lieutenants. All of these circumstances had the 
tendency to create a spirit of dissatisfaction, es- 
pecially when a wily deceiver like Absalom could 
use them to attain his own ends. His inherited 
characteristics for leadership and his legal claim to 
kingship gave him a hold upon the public mind of 
which he was not slow to take advantage. All this 
he ably supplemented with wiles and flattery of his 



64 



ABSALOM 



own. WTienever a subject repaired to the king's 
court for justice Absalom inquired diligently into 
his case and if the suitor were disappointed the 
Prince gave him such a condescending sympathy as 
to win his heart and make him feel that he had 
received gross injustice at David's hand. Slowly 
but surely this poison was poured into the ears of 
Israel's body politic, and the hint given that the 
panacea for their ills lay in raising the royal prince 
to the throne. Is it any wonder, then, that when 
Absalom repaired to Hebron, under the false pre- 
tence of going to renew his vows to the Lord, and 
there made a proclamation that he was king that 
every disappointed office seeker and dissatisfied 
subject rallied to his call and turned the tide of 
public opinion in his favour? 

Thus David in his old age was suddenly con- 
fronted with a rival for his throne in the person of 
his own son, and stood face to face with the facts 
that the majority of his subjects and kingly coun- 
sellors had joined openly in the conspiracy. Real- 
izing that his only safety lay in flight, David took 
the remnant of his faithful ones and passed out of 
the city and on to the fords of the Jordan. Mean- 
while Absalom, flushed with success, with a large 
following of insurrectionists under his command 
had taken possession of the royal capital and 
reigned in Jerusalem 

As David in retreat passed along the slopes of 
Olivet where centuries later the royal Nazarene as 



ABSALOM 



65 



the true Son of David was destined to pass, what 
mingled feelings must have filled his soul. First 
for this sorrow and disgrace he was partially to 
blame; that this was but the culmination of that 
evil leaven which, had been working in his house- 
hold ever since his fall ; that this was but a partial 
fulfillment of Nathan's prophecy: "The Sword 
shall never depart from thy house. ,, And last of 
all he must have felt that "ingratitude stronger 
than a traitor's hand had surely vanquished him." 
Also that " sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to 
have a thankless child." 

Absalom's reign was brief. He did not have 
God on his side and all his plans went " aglee." 
Rejecting the counsel of Ahithophel to follow up 
his success with an immediate attack he accepted 
the advice of Hushai, one of David's secret coun- 
sellors. When at last the two armies met in battle 
the untrained cohorts of Absalom were no match 
for the king's regulars who, divided into three 
divisions, like Gideon's army of old, each under 
the command of a skilled general, put the rebels to 
flight with a loss of 20,000 men. 

Absalom, who in his pride was leading his troops 
in person, went down to ignominy and death, al- 
though David had given explicit commands to 
spare the son's life. 

Meanwhile David, who had wisely refrained 
from active service, was anxiously awaiting re- 
turns from the battle. At last a runner was sighted 



66 ABSALOM 

from the watch tower and as he drew near with 
the words upon his lips, " Tidings, my Lord, the 
King," David asked with all the anxiety of his 
soul, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And 
Cushi replied, " The enemies of my Lord, the 
King, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt 
be as that young man is." Crushed with sorrow 
and remorse, that old hero of many wars retired to 
his bed chamber and in the bitterness of tears let 
fall from his lips a cry of human woe, which in its 
deep pathos and simple beauty presents the most 
sublime example of Apostrophe in all literature, 
" O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! 
Would God I had died for thee ! O Absalom, my 
son, my son ! " 

" So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain, 
No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart 
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart. 
Keen were his pangs but keener far to feel, 
He nursed the pinion that impelled the steel. 
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest. 
Drank the last life drop from his bleeding breast." 

So David, broken in spirit, saw in vision the 
face of his wayward son. Absalom, the favourite 
child at the court ! Absalom, with his jolly reckless 
ways, his ruddy cheeks and his long flowing hair, 
how often David had pressed this child of promise 
to his heart. Now he sees him cut off in the bloom 
of manhood, ruined, disgraced and wringing the 
last drops from his father's broken heart. 



ABSALOM 



67 



I would not be true to the mission of my life did 
I not present a few practical lessons from this sad 
story. If ever a young man " had a chance " from 
the worlds point of view that young man was 
Absalom. His father was the king, the most influ- 
ential and noted man of his time. The wealth of 
the Kingdom lay at Absalom's feet and the armies 
of Israel were at his call. He had chariots and 
horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. He 
was the heir to riches, lofty station in social and 
political life, and the honours of a royal prince 
were his. What did he lack ? He lacked the abso- 
lute essential to the fibre of every young man, the 
essence of all true life — moral character. Young 
man, whatever your aims in life, whatever your 
ambition to rule in a . kingdom, never attempt to 
gain that kingdom through deceit and fraud. Suc- 
cess obtained by fraud will be but an ephemeral 
dream. The world is large enough and wide 
enough to give us all success if we follow after 
right principles. It is not necessary to rise by 
pulling others down. 

The life of Absalom is a sad commentary on 
defective training in the home, of a father too busy 
with the cares of this world to care for his own 
boy. When a boy becomes alienated from his 
father and his father's religion he is running a 
fearful risk. Many fathers today might do well to 
profit by the bitter experiences of David. It is the 
duty of every parent to throw about his boy just 



68 



ABSALOM 



the very best influence possible. If David had 
lived a little more for Absalom and set a better 
example of manhood in life before his son, he 
might not have been called upon to express the sad 
wish that he might have died in his stead. 

During his life Absalom had prepared a great 
tomb to stand as a monument to him after his de- 
parture. He was buried in a pit in the jungle, and 
the only monuments he left were a tarnished name 
and a father's broken heart. However we mis- 
judge men in the present the ultimate verdict of 
history is usually just. In modern Jerusalem today 
men, women and little children hurl stones against 
what is known as Absalom's tomb to express their 
detestation of the spirit of a rebellious child. 

It is sad enough to see the life of any young man 
cut off in its youthful days, even though he were 
true to himself, but what a sad picture to see the 
recording angel write over the deeds of the life of 
a young man the word failure. 

Finally the anxiety of David for the welfare of 
his son is a question which every parent will do 
well to ponder. Is the young man safe? Safe 
from intemperance, safe from bad habits, safe in a 
good home, safe in the church of Christ, safe as he 
faces Eternity. 

" For sadder sight than eye can know 
Than proud bark lost or seamen's woe, 
Than battle fire or tempest cloud, 
Or prey bird's shriek or ocean shroud. 
The shipwreck of a soul." 



VI 



MIRACLES 

" Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of 
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by mir- 
acles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in 
the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know" — 
Acts 2:22. 

THERE are a great many good people in this 
world who declare that they do not believe 
in Miracles. At least they attempt to explain 
them away by natural means, or attempt to show 
how the authors of Scriptures overworked their 
imaginations. There are different classes of indi- 
viduals who deny miracles. The first class is the 
Sceptics, who always deny that there is any such 
thing as supernaturally revealed religion. They 
repudiate the Bible as the word of God and very 
naturally cast aside miracles. There is another 
class whom we might term ethical culture Chris- 
tians. They lay great emphasis on the Good and 
the Beautiful. Morals and good works in general 
strongly appeal to their hearts. They emphasize 
the golden rule in life and think much of the prac- 
tical sense of the Book of Proverbs, and Christ's 
Sermon on the Mount, but when it comes to Mir- 
acles they cannot bring their minds to accept them. 
The reason for the Sceptic's position is the same on 

69 



70 



MIRACLES 



miracles that it is on the inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures. The reason for the mind that is inclined to 
a rationalistic view of the world is : that science has 
shown the world to be governed by immutable laws 
and they feel that a miracle could never be per- 
formed without violating those laws. 

Let it be understood at the very beginning that 
the subject of miracles is an open question, that 
when the sceptic comes to you and triumphantly 
asserts that " you cannot prove that Jesus of Naza- 
reth ever worked any miracles/' then the Christian 
can with equal boldness reply : " Well, you cannot 
prove that He did not." Be he sage or scientist, 
Philosopher or Sceptic, no man has ever shown that 
Jesus did not perform the mighty acts which the 
Bible declares were done by the might of His 
power, so that argument, like an empty box, has 
nothing in it. 

All men ought to accept one of two propositions 
in accounting for the world. Either there is a God 
who made it, some great personality who planned 
it, and gave to it the laws we now see in force ; or 
this world is the result of blind chance, it just hap- 
pened, and there is no explanation. The Christian 
takes the former view, he believes there is a God, 
not because he can mathematically demonstrate 
His existence, but because he believes that it is 
more reasonable to account for the world and for 
man on the basis of a creator, than to say "we 
don't know." The Christian claims that it is a 



MIRACLES 



71 



harder proposition to deny a God than it is to ac- 
cept Him and that the latter is the more rational 
view. For, we must account for man and the 
world. The man who attempts to solve the prob- 
lems of this world and not take God into account 
will get into deeper water than the Christian ; and 
for him to dismiss the case and say, " I don't know 
and neither do you," will never get a man any- 
where in the course of reasoning and the average 
human mind will not be satisfied with that sort of a 
statement. There are too many things in this 
world we do not know which we can prove, and too 
many first and fundamental truths which we can 
use as a basis for further reasoning, for the aver- 
age man to dismiss the case. This is why Ag- 
nostics are getting fewer every day. Christians 
believe that there is a God who made the world 
with all its mysterious problems ; that it is no great 
feat on His part to perform a miracle ; that Jeho- 
vah in His omnipotence is not compelled to exert 
Himself so to do; that it requires no extra effort 
on His part. 

Since God created the world then He under- 
stands the laws, and why would it not be possible 
for Him to perform with ease that which might 
seem difficult for us; and if the laws of nature 
originally sprung from a supernatural source, what 
is to hinder His continually exercising a power 
over them ? Are we going to say that God is the 
builder of Nature's house and not hereafter a 



72 



MIRACLES 



Master in that house ? It is no argument against 
God's omniscience to say that His original plan 
was perfect and a miracle would place God in the 
attitude of repairing defects in His own product 
as a jeweller would mend a watch. That argu- 
ment does not take into consideration the defects 
man has made. God's original plan was perfect, 
and Man was a free agent. God endowed him with 
an ability to tear down that original perfection and 
miracles in the divine harmony of things were 
absolutely necessary to repair the breach. Miracles 
presuppose a break, and their purpose is a complete 
restoration. So great was that break that if Christ 
had come and not been accompanied by miracles as 
a revealing witness to His power the opponents of 
the miraculous would have wanted to impeach His 
authority on the ground that it was unaccompanied 
with sufficient evidence of divinity. Miracles are 
not only powers, but signs and wonders as well. 
Power shows their source, wonders reveal their 
effect on man, and signs are living witnesses to the 
genuineness of their author. 

Because miracles are contrary to the universal 
experience of men now is no more reason that they 
never took place than it would be for the inhabit- 
ants of the torrid zone to deny that ice and snow 
never form in the North Temperate zone because 
such formations were against their universal ex- 
perience in the Torrid zone. 

I wish to present miracles as a theme because I 



MIRACLES 



73 



am convinced that with men and women who be- 
lieve in a God and who are interested in Chris- 
tianity, that much of their disbelief in miracles will 
in its ultimate results annihilate Christianity. And 
I make this assertion because Christianity is not 
merely a number of moral truths grouped together, 
it is not a mere ethical code of laws. Christianity 
is based absolutely, first, last and all the time, on 
the miraculous. The founder of Christianity was 
the Miracle of all Miracles. He was not like other 
men in character or product. From Bethlehem's 
manger to the Mount of Ascension, the life of 
Jesus of Nazareth was a sequence of miracles. His 
virgin birth, His sinless life, His Resurrection 
from the Dead and His Ascension on High cer- 
tainly did not follow along the lines of the common 
experiences of man, and most assuredly cannot be 
accounted for by any natural laws. Christianity is 
not merely a system of moral truths, Christianity 
is a series of established facts. That which is true 
of Christianity is likewise true of all religion which 
has a supreme being as its central truth and fact. 
Why should any individual, be he pagan or Chris- 
tian, approach a deity with offerings of worship if 
that deity will never interfere with his manner of 
life? Does it seem to you as a student of history 
that at certain periods in the development of men 
and nations that the hand of God is unmistakably 
manifest? That must be an error of judgment on 
your part, for, eliminate the miraculous and 



74 



MIRACLES 



you have a world made some time, you know not 
when, and by a being, about whom you know 
nothing, who if he ever had any close relations 
with this universe, has abandoned it now, and 
takes no active part in its government outside the 
immutable laws in whose grip the world finds itself. 
Is there an element of danger surrounding your 
life or a child deathly sick in your home and does 
your soul prompt you to lift your heart to God for 
deliverance in addition to whatever human natural 
means you may employ? Well, it is folly, you 
know, for there is no such a thing as interference 
with any established laws, and you are giving your- 
self unwarranted trouble, for that listless some- 
thing is not active now and you must calmly await 
your unknown destiny ! Have you ever stood and 
wept at the bier of a dead friend and had your soul 
life vibrate with renewed energy as you thought of 
the life to come, where in happy union with your 
loved ones you would enjoy throughout an endless 
future the blessings of eternal life? Well these 
were unnecessary dreams on your part, for there is 
no Resurrection of our Lord, that story in the Bible 
was merely the result of an overworked imagina- 
tion of Christ's disciples and would be contrary to 
any known law which governs the world ! 

Have you ever felt a longing for that higher life 
in regeneration by which in this sin cursed world, 
by divine help, you could begin to die unto sin and 
live unto righteousness? Better abandon that 



MIRACLES 



75 



thought now for Sin is as natural to the human 
heart as weeds are to the soil, and it crops out with 
as little effort, and there is no use to battle against 
fate! God never sent His only Begotten Son into 
the world that the world thru Him might be saved, 
for such a life would be contrary to the laws of 
nature! My friend, before you deny the element 
of the miraculous in religion you had better pause 
and consider what the effect of that denial will have 
on your religious system. The Sceptic appreciates 
it and well he knows that if he can get you to re- 
pudiate the miraculous he will ultimately land you 
in his camp or make you illogical in your reason- 
ing. You cannot be a logical thinker and declare 
your belief in a divine Saviour and then deny Him 
to be a free living personal redeemer with power. 
And I would ask you to take note of those whom 
you meet who deny the miraculous in Scripture and 
ascertain if nine times out of ten they do not like- 
wise repudiate the divinity of Christ and relegate 
Him to the sphere of the good man ; nine times out 
of ten they will deny Christ's atonement for sin; 
nine out of ten will deny that the Bible is the word 
of God, but rather the product of misguided men 
who drew wrong inferences from some historical 
events and drew on their inventive powers to em- 
bellish a made up story. 

It is impossible in this discourse to enter into all 
the different arguments for or against miracles, but 
I desire to take up a few for the benefit of any 



76 



MIRACLES 



minds that might be clouded and whose faith in the 
miraculous has become lukewarm. 

One of the stock arguments of Sceptics against 
the possibilities of miracles is : that a miracle is a 
violation of natural laws and that natural law being 
the expression we have of the will of God to con- 
tradict that law is for God to contradict Himself. 
In other words, opponents of Scripture endeavour 
to reduce the world and its operations to one con- 
tinuous level and they reason that because no mir- 
acles take place now, therefore none ever did occur. 
That if something akin to miracles took place it 
would raise a disturbance in the natural harmony 
of the universe. They assert that the world is God 
and that He has no other expression of Himself 
except that which we observe in Nature, and still 
again they affirm that God created the world, estab- 
lished its laws, started their movement and then left 
it alone to work out its ultimate end thru those 
established laws. Thus we have two extremes. 
Pantheism at one end which avows that God is 
identical with the world, that all is God — and at 
the other pole we have Deism, which boldly asserts 
that God has completely separated Himself from 
the world. 

Now the Christian view of God and the world 
specifically points out where both the pantheistic and 
the rationalistic views break down. And the Chris- 
tian does this in the light of human experience. 
The Christian asserts that the world gives evidence 



MIRACLES 



77 



of plan and that plan shows forth the will of a 
personality — a personality as distinct from its 
product as the creation of a man's mind is sepa- 
rated from the mind and will which produced it. 
When once you admit that God is a living entity 
exercising freedom, you have solved forever the 
problem of the possibility of miracles. 

Another error of judgment on the part of many 
opponents of the miraculous is to assume that there 
is no necessity for miracles, that God created the 
world perfect and therefore it has no need for 
miracles. They declare miracles would be an inter- 
ference rather than a help. But the practical life 
of today breaks that argument down, for every- 
where man meets with the disorder of Sin and, 
speculate as he may, he is obliged to face it as a 
blighting, withering curse. It is just on this ac- 
count that Jesus Christ came into the world to put 
His redeeming life into the breach made by Sin 
and bring it back to its original condition and en- 
able man to work out his salvation. 

When your religion starts on the basic principle 
that there is a living personal God you have started 
with the greatest miracle of all, and when once 
Man admits that God is responsible for the miracu- 
lous in creation it is folly for him to deny the 
possibility of miracles, for whatever power God has 
manifested once, He could certainly do again else 
He would not be God. And if the creative act 
with relation to the genesis of the world is a mir- 



78 



MIRACLES 



acle how much more is Man. Man with a wonder- 
ful living organism ; Man with such peculiar indi- 
viduality that no two are alike in talents, power or 
disposition. Man with his wonderful eye, his deli- 
cate ear, his finely developed senses and his marvel- 
lous union of mind and matter; Man with his rea- 
soning faculties and his powers of speech. 
" Man is a miracle begotten and conceived, 
A miracle he lives, is born and nursed, 
A miracle he grows, and sees, and feels, 
A miracle he thinks, and what he thinks, 
A miracle he stands, miracles environing, 
Miracles precede and follow all his steps. 
To them he is so gradually, unconsciously, in- 
ured that they appear to him quite natural. And 
unaccustomed only seems miraculous to him, 
Who Nature's wonders unastonished sees." 
Ah, my friends, the analogies in nature go to 
prove the miraculous, for every form of life has its 
own peculiar laws, and yet in almost all the lower 
forms a higher form can reach down and produce 
results which the laws of that lower form could 
never have produced of themselves. That higher 
form produces its effects without in any manner 
interfering with or violating the lower order's laws. 
No wonder that men like Strauss and Renan strive 
to get rid of the supernatural origin of man. But 
to the evolutionist I say that grant his assumption 
that man's creation was not accomplished by a 
momentary act; grant that man came from some 



MIRACLES 



79 



primordial germ and slowly evolved through the 
process of years until he finally arrived through 
the medium of monkeys to the magnificent pro- 
portions in which we now find him — grant all 
that — there was a first Cause somewhere, a be- 
ginning sometime, and that first cause and that 
first effect were miraculous because they embody 
the supernatural. 

Now if these changes can be shown in the differ- 
ent forms of life what is to hinder divine power 
from reaching down and accomplishing results 
which never could have been wrought out by exist- 
ing laws of nature and in accomplishing these re- 
sults in no wise interfering with or violating the 
operating forces which we behold in nature. It is 
illogical reasoning to deny this if you admit of a 
supernatural being. 

I have based practically all of my discourse from 
arguments which start with God as a living entity 
in human life and experience. But suppose some 
man as an Atheist comes along and says, " Yes, but 
I don't believe in a God," or an Agnostic speaks 
up and says, " There may be a God, but I don't 
know it." Then, I say to both of them, " Very 
well, if you take God out of the reckonings of 
human life in its relations to the world, you still 
have the personality of Man and you still have the 
world before you. To be a reasonable thinker you 
must account for them, and in thus accounting for 
them by leaving God out you will have a bigger 



80 



MIRACLES 



miracle on your hands than any of the miraculous 
events in Scripture which you deny. 

Remember that a miracle does not either suspend 
or violate any law of Nature. Remember that it 
does not take any extraordinary amount of intelli- 
gence to deny anything. But it is a sign of mental 
acumen when a man sits down and calmly weighs 
the evidence for or against a proposition. The 
best scientists in the world are careful men. They 
seldom use the word " impossible/' All scientists 
admit that the course of Nature can be changed by 
the introduction of a new Will or Cause. For in- 
stance : a boy throws a ball into the air. That is 
not the natural course for the ball to go ; the nat- 
ural course of the ball is downward, drawn by a 
natural law, and yet as the ball flies upward it 
neither suspends nor violates any of nature's laws. 
It is simply the introduction of a new cause and a 
new effect. The Law of Gravitation is acting on 
that ball just as much when it is going up as when 
it is coming down. So when Jesus walked on the 
water or when Elisha made the ax to swim they did 
not suspend or violate any natural law. It was 
simply the introduction of a new cause and a new 
effect. The same is true with all miracles. God 
introduces a new cause which produces a new effect 
which never would have been brought about save 
by the exercise of His will. 

Rest assured, that the God who made the eye has 
the power to make the blind to see. The God who 



MIRACLES 



81 



made the ear can make the deaf to hear. The God 
who made our bodies can restore their lost func- 
tions. The God who made heat can withhold its 
power and force by the fiat of His will. 

If in the Bible it were recorded that on one oc- 
casion Jesus of Nazareth had placed before Him a 
man stricken with an ailment and that Jesus had 
declared that something was lodged between the 
flesh and the bone which was giving the difficulty, 
it would have been declared impossible for Jesus to 
have seen it, but now when the physician takes the 
X-ray all men admit that you can discover an ail- 
ment and do it without violating any law of nature. 
All will admit that a man can see through a six- 
inch plank now, but if Jesus had looked through a 
six-inch plank the sceptics throughout all time 
would have avowed that such a feat was impossible. 
If in the Bible there had been recorded a story to 
the effect that Christ, accompanied by Peter, James 
and John, had been out in a boat and were ship- 
wrecked in a storm and Jesus had sent word to 
some of His friends on the shore in some mys- 
terious way asking that relief come and the dis- 
ciples had answered that call from a distance and 
saved their lives the sceptics in every age would 
have been saying that such a thing was impossible, 
and that it would be contrary to the laws of nature 
to believe such a thing. But when the steamer 
Republic was about to sink and sent a wireless to 
the various stations along the coast, then the people 



82 



MIRACLES 



said " how wonderful, we never saw it on this 
fashion." The facts are that Marconi discovered a 
new law of nature, that is all. New laws of nature 
are being discovered every day ; laws heretofore un- 
known to man, but known by God and capable of 
being used by Him, for He was their author, and 
He it was who established them in the world. 

Therefore, I believe that a miracle is an event in 
this world produced by the one immediate act of 
God — an act which cannot be accounted for in nat- 
ural law, but neither violates nor suspends that 
law. If you admit there is a God miracles are pos- 
sible; if you admit divine revelation they are prob- 
able, and after all when I see a steamboat plough 
its way from New York to Liverpool in five days 
with its cargo of human freight, when I see a 
magnificent Pullman train speed over the rails a 
mile in thirty-five seconds, when I see one man talk 
to his brother a thousand miles distant and another 
encircling the globe with a message in a few sec- 
onds, and another flying three miles high into the 
clouds, and another lighting the world with elec- 
tricity, it keeps me tolerably busy wondering what 
man will do next. And then when I think on what 
man can do I sometimes wonder why men will 
question what God can do, and I repeat with words 
of faith the statement of Jeremiah of old: " Lord, 
there is nothing too hard for Thee." 

A belief in miracles gives a man a wider vision 
of life, a clearer conception of religious truth and 



MIRACLES 



83 



a deeper reverence for the Almighty than to bring 
Him down within the narrow confines of the nat- 
ural, everyday mode of living. And to say, " O 
well, of course God could perform miracles, but 
He never did," is simply begging the question. It 
is assuming that God has certain powers which are 
worthless to Him and to the world because they are 
never exercised, and it is denying the truth of 
books whose authorship and authenticity are more 
firmly established than the apology of Plato or the 
death of Socrates. He who denies God of course 
denies Revelation, and it might be well for those 
who thus deny the miraculous to account for, 
through natural agencies, all the phenomena of 
history. For instance, let them account for the 
belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let them 
account for the Christian civilization of today as 
the growth of centuries of systematic belief of that 
which was false if their statements be true. Let 
them account for the marvellous history of the 
Jewish race with its circumstances of miracle and 
wonderful work, and they will find that it is more 
difficult to solve the riddle of the universe on their 
theories than it will be to believe in the super- 
natural and the miraculous. 

May our lives look up in faith to Him who 
created us and has provided us with such a won- 
derful Saviour. May we feel that with God all 
things are possible, and that His ways are higher 
than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. 



VII 



THE FRIENDSHIP OF DAVID AND 



"And it came to pass, when he had made an end of 
speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit 
with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his 
own soul" — I Sam. 18:1. 

fTlHE grandest life anyone can live is the help- 



ful life which is lived for the benefit of all 



mankind. No man can live such a life with- 
out friends. Unless his mind has entertained lov- 
ing thoughts for others, unless some of the deeds 
of his life have been performed for others unself- 
ishly, unless his very heart and soul have been 
drawn to others by the ties of affection and friend- 
ship, such a one has never experienced what it is 
rightly to live. How true are the words of that 
one who said, " The noblest life is the life that 
loves, that gives, that loses itself, that overflows, as 
it were, irrigating the great fields of anxiety and 
toil — the warm, hearty, helpful, social Christian 
life that cheers, comforts and sustains by its pa- 
tience, its serenity and its gratitude. ,, Such lives 
help to perfect society. They add to the world's 
moral worth, although they cannot be reckoned in 
the world's scale of finance; money can neither 
purchase them nor recompense their loss. " Surely 



JONATHAN 




84 



DAVID AND JONATHAN 85 



a faithful friend is better than gold." Friendship 
is one of the seeds which ripens into love and love 
is the greatest thing in the world. 

It has been declared that reason is the touch of 
friendship, judgment its guide, tenderness its ali- 
ment; that the true friendship which exists be- 
tween man and man can no more be frozen up 
through adversity than the clear waters of a bub- 
bling stream will congeal in winter. I believe that 
one reason the Almighty had for creating man 
after His own image was in order to display in 
man some of those heavenly characteristics of 
which friendship is one. How much the friend- 
ships of this world tend to soothe ruffled tempers, 
to cause the clouds of doubt and despair to break 
away and to scatter seeds of kindness in the hearts 
of humanity. It is words of friendship which, 
when fitly spoken are like "apples of gold in 
pictures of silver." Aye, and as we lose our 
friends, as they pass over, the friendships of this 
life help to convince our minds of the blessings of 
immortality, and thus friendship assists in con- 
quering death and triumphing over the grave. 
Think back on the friends you have known where 
a true heart fellowship existed. Bring them back 
in your mind's eye. You can see them now as 
plainly as when they walked among men — the look 
in the eye, the warm, hearty handclasp, their lives 
knitted with your lives ; and now that they are gone 
you cannot help but feel that there is an immortal- 



86 



DAVID AND JONATHAN 



ity of the soul; that this separation is not forever, 
but in the distant future there will be once again 

" Two souls with but a single thought; 
Two hearts that beat as one." 

In the history of the world there have been many 
notable examples of friendship. We have Pythias, 
the follower of Pathagoras, when condemned by 
Dionysius the First, had 'Damon as his friend to 
give his life bond. We have Ruth, the Moabitess, 
so drawn by the cords of love to Naomi that she 
gave up home, friends, country and religion in that 
impassioned cry : " Entreat me not to leave thee, 
nor to keep from following after thee, for whither 
thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God 
my God." We have Paul, the grand old mission- 
ary warrior, confined in a Roman prison house 
thinking of his young friend Timothy and writing 
to him those soul-stirring epistles in his valedictory, 
to the church. We have John, the beloved disciple, 
leaning upon the Master's breast in the upper room 
and hearing Him say to all of the apostolic circle, 
" Henceforth I call you not servants, for the ser- 
vant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have 
called you friends." These are the types of friend- 
ship which exist today between many hearts in 
almost every community. 

We have many notable examples of friendship in 
the Bible. Abraham was a friend of God. Moses 



DAVID AND JONATHAN 87 



and Joshua were friends. Daniel and the three 
Hebrew children were lovable companions together. 
But among all the romantic tales of Scripture there 
is one which, for moral beauty, unselfish devotion 
and godlike heroism, stands without an equal in 
the annals of human friendship. It is the story of 
Jonathan and David. Jonathan, the royal prince, 
the child of a king, the heir apparent to Israel's 
throne. David the shepherd lad, a sweet singer, a 
courtier at the royal palace already anointed and 
definitely appointed as Israel's future king. 

This scene is taken from what we might term 
Israel's iron age. Its background is the Court of 
Saul in the royal palace at Gibeah. The reign of 
the first king of Israel had been a memorable one. 
One war followed another with the tribes which 
surrounded Israel. The attacks of the Philistines 
had been especially troublesome, but God had given 
to Saul not only fame as a ruler, but success as a 
warrior. Instead of manifesting gratitude to Je- 
hovah for His blessings, we behold a monarch bold 
and impulsive, extremely selfish and jealous and 
with an ungovernable temper which at times bord- 
ered on insanity. Jonathan was the son of Saul 
and the natural heir to the throne. Throughout 
his entire life he had been reared in an atmosphere 
of royalty. He was a bright, capable young man, 
a Benjaminite and a skilled archer. Having inher- 
ited from his father a magnificent physique, and a 
loving disposition from his mother, as he grew to 



88 DAVID AND JONATHAN 



manhood he became a powerful ally to the king and 
shared with him his glories and his perils, his 
victories and his defeats. Although Jonathan was 
a hero in battle and at times gained great military 
renown, it is not his war record which has passed 
into history, but his friendship for David, which 
has aroused the admiration and stirred the blood 
of past and present generations. 

The friendship between these remarkable char- 
acters must have been of rather sudden origin. In 
all probability Jonathan knew David at the time the 
shepherd lad was called to the king's court to soothe 
Saul's troubled soul with music from a harp, yet 
there was nothing in that incident which would 
cause the two lives to become intimate. But, when 
that same shepherd lad answered the challenge of 
Goliath of Gath and laid that Philistine giant low, 
that act of heroism appealed to the heroic in Jona- 
than's life and Jonathan loved David and his soul 
was knitted to the soul of David so that he loved 
him as he loved himself. 

The two became friends. They made a covenant 
together, perchance transfusing their blood into 
each others veins, pledging life for life and setting 
forth in Holy Writ a perfect type of friendship for 
men of God to follow, the incidents of whichever 
make a story of dramatic interest. 

Many times was this friendship tried and tested. 
Saul knew that his kingdom was on the wane. He 
remembered the words of the old prophet, " Thou 



DAVID AND JONATHAN 89 



hast been rejected of the Lord." Down in his 
heart he felt and knew that David would be Israel's 
future king. He resented that idea. He was 
naturally ambitious for his own son. He tried to 
arouse a jealous enmity between them. He very 
frankly told Jonathan that he never would be king 
so long as David lived. He even tried to take the 
life of Jonathan because he refused to break his 
friendship with David. He exposed David un- 
necessarily in battle and he hurled his own javelin 
at him many times. It was a trying time for both 
musician and prince, but in the midst of it all both 
stood true. David was wise and discreet — Jona- 
than loving and friendly. When Saul sought the 
life of David it was Jonathan who informed his 
friend of the king's intentions, and out in the field 
by the stone Ezel, they renewed their covenant and 
then parted. Only once again is a record made of 
their meeting. When Saul was hunting David like 
a wild beast in the wilderness of Ziph, it was Jona- 
than who left the camp and went to his friend and 
strengthened his hand in God, saying unto him, 
" Fear not, David, for the hand of my father shall 
not find thee and thou shalt be king over Israel and 
I shall be next unto thee and this also Saul, my 
father, knoweth." When at last Saul and his 
valiant son gave up their lives on the slopes of 
Mount Gilboa and the tidings of their death came 
to David, the lament which fell from his lips is one 
of the most beautiful elegies in literature. 



90 DAVID AND JONATHAN 



Such is the record of friendship between two 
noble lives. The friendship which was founded 
upon love and tested in the bitter fires of persecu- 
tion and jealousy tended to remove the dross and 
leave the gold. Surely such a friendship ought to 
be helpful for our lives. Let us then consider a 
few of the necessary qualifications which must be 
exhibited in a man's soul for him to be a true 
friend. First, in all true friendships there must be 
character upon which to build. Kingsley was right 
when he said, " Only great hearted men can be true 
friends/' Second, in all true friendships there 
must be a harmony rather than an identity of char- 
acter. Jonathan and David each sounded a note in 
life's great song. They were different notes, but 
they were harmonious ; there was no discord there. 
Both men had marked characteristics. Many of 
them were the same. Both were strong with fine 
physiques; both were men of intelligence and 
shrewdness; both were courageous. There was 
just enough difference in their lives to make one 
the complement of the other. Their lives were like 
two colours perfectly blended, yet each shining 
brighter by contrast with the other. What was it 
that Jonathan saw in David ? He saw a man with 
an attractive face, beautiful in its innocence and 
simplicity. He saw a man with a fine body, every 
inch fitted to be a soldier. He looked upon a man 
of courage who had slain not only a lion and a 
bear, but the champion giant in the Philistine army. 



DAVID AND JONATHAN 91 



He listened to music from a skilled musician and 
to words which fell from the lips of a born poet. 
He beheld a man who was modest in his bearing, a 
marvel of tact and common sense and who at all 
times manifested a simple, childlike faith in God. 

And what did David see in Jonathan: A royal 
prince handsome in body and clean in mind; a vali- 
ant soldier who had captured an armed fortress 
with only the assistance of his armour-bearer. He 
beheld a man who was magnanimous in his disposi- 
tion and who gave from his life no petty jealous- 
ies, although he realized that his friend was to take 
his natural place as king. He beheld a kind- 
hearted, generous soul who, in the midst of all 
temptations of royalty and the tyrannical acts of an 
insane father, continued to manifest a living faith 
in a living God. Is it any wonder that David 
loved Jonathan, and need we marvel that the soul 
of Jonathan was knitted to the soul of David? 

A school of discipline is ofttimes necessary to 
the development of a great life work. Why was it 
that David was invited to Saul's court? Was it 
merely to soothe his troubled soul with music from 
a harp or was it in the providence of God in order 
that he might be accustomed to the ways and man- 
ners of royalty so that when at last he was called 
upon to rule he would be fitted for his opportunity? 
Whatever God gave David to do in his life he al- 
ways did well. His defeats seemed to pave the 
way to future victory, so God ofttimes gives to us 



92 DAVID AND JONATHAN 



menial tasks in order that by doing them we shall 
receive a preparation for a higher, loftier service 
for God and humanity. 

Finally, the highest, grandest, truest friendship 
in all the world is the friendship of our Lord. He 
stands before men a perfect type of the royalty of 
friendship. It is a friendship founded upon love. 
He gave His life for us, the supreme test of any 
friend. " Greater love hath no man than this, that 
a man lay down his life for his friends." It is a 
friendship founded upon obedience. " Ye are my 
friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." It is 
a friendship based upon service for " we serve the 
Lord Christ." 

May every one of us here today be a friend of 
the Saviour. Surely He wants us to be His 
friends, or He would never have given forth that 
beseeching appeal, " My son, give me thine heart." 
May our souls be knitted this day with the soul of 
Christ, and may there be woven into the fabric of 
our lives the threads of His love, His helpfulness, 
His confidence, His constancy, and at last may we 
all be gathered in His presence in the upper room 
where we shall see Him face to face and hear His 
gentle voice repeat in loving accents low and sweet : 
" Henceforth I call you not servants, for the ser- 
vant knoweth not what His Lord doeth, but I have 
called you friends." 



VIII 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 
"Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him"^-M.ARK 

IN the life cup of every man there are bitter 
dregs to drink. Sometimes it is a fortune 
lost, the accumulation of years of honest toil. 
Sometimes it is the loss of health and forced retire- 
ment from the active duties of life. Sometimes it 
is home bereavement when a loved one is taken 
away. But the bitterest draught of which any life 
has to partake is that which contains the ingredi- 
ents of a traitor's depravity and involves the be- 
trayal of a trusted friend. In such a case both the 
traitor and the betrayed suffer. 

When Benedict Arnold sold his honour to satisfy 
his revenge for a disappointed ambition, think you 
that his betrayed countrymen were all who suf- 
fered? Ah, no. That man who had been once an 
honoured American soldier and whose deeds of val- 
our will ever thrill the mind of the true patriot, 
bought his revenge at a terrible price. No British 
gold could ever repay the loss to him of home, 
friends, countrymen — or erase that indelible brand 
of traitor which had been burned into his con- 
science by the lurid flames of Hell. When at last 

93 



94 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



the grave opened to receive his mortal clay, the 
clods which rattled on his casket sounded the dirge 
of one whose life dawned bright, whose sun rose to 
the very zenith of its power only in the afternoon 
to sink beneath a dark cloud of despair and re- 
morse from which it never emerged. But sad to 
say, the stigma did not end with the shadow of 
death. As long as the world shall stand, till the 
Angel shall declare that time shall be no more, and 
the Stars and Stripes shall give way to the Banner 
of the Cross in a spiritual kingdom, over the name 
of Benedict Arnold, where once glistened the stars 
of Quebec and Saratoga, will be written Ichabod, 
for their glory has departed beneath the tarnish of 
those acts at West Point, Richmond, and New Lon- 
don. His memory will ever recall his false friend- 
ship and his name will never escape the lasting 
ignominy which humanity has placed upon it. 

In the mind of all the world, wherever the gospel 
light is shining and the Book of Life proclaims the 
story of Christ's redeeming love, there is one name 
which is placed lower in the depths of perfidy and 
dishonour than that of Arnold. It is that one who, 
called of God, refused to make the Spirit effectual 
in his life, because of an insatiable ambition for 
power. That one who lived for three years with 
the gospel light of Christ's ministry shining in his 
face; that one who in the midst of all those holy 
environments proved a hypocrite and a thief ; that 
one who for a mess of silver pottage bartered away 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



95 



his birthright ; betrayed his Master, who had been 
his best friend, who had trusted him, warned him, 
endowed him with power; and had never done in 
his presence aught but good; that man who was 
one of the Twelve, the Treasurer of the Apos- 
tolic Band; the deeds of whose life epitomize 
humanity's estimate of depravity Incarnate; — 
Judas Iscariot. 

The treachery of Judas was deliberate. It was 
not committed on the spur of the moment like the 
denial of Peter. It was an opportunity after which 
his wicked heart had sought ; which for diabolical 
heartlessness stands without a parallel in the annals 
of false friendship; an act which was performed in 
the midst of the wonderful events of Passion 
Week, the touching scenes of those last hours in 
the Upper Room, and reached its climax in its 
signal of friendship which only added insult to 
injury. And think you that in this act of Judas, 
Christ was the only one who suffered? Ah, no. 
While the knowledge of His disciple's faithlessness 
added to the Saviour's cup of woe, and no doubt 
increased the number of those drops of blood in 
the agonies of Gethsemane, yet the crime of Judas 
brought its own condemnation and his act recoiled 
upon his own head. For after it was all over, and 
his hopes were shattered, the ambitions of his life 
unattained, and his Master condemned to the 
Cross, the enormity of his crime suddenly flashed 
upon him. The utterances of Christ which pointed 



96 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



to His death, the mysterious prophecies of the Old 
Testament concerning His atonement — all seemed 
clear to him now, and Judas realized how his life 
had been one of the instruments in bringing it 
about. Stung with remorse and anguish of heart, 
due to a failure of his unholy ambition, we see him 
make one final desperate effort, partially to atone 
for his crime. We hear his cry which, like Ahab's 
of old, came from a guilty rather than an awakened 
conscience, " I have sinned in that I have betrayed 
innocent blood." We see those blood-stained 
hands hold out to their accessories in crime, the 
lucre which in some measure had moved his soul 
to betrayal, and hear the sneering reply, " What is 
that to us, see thou to that." As those hands with 
the frenzy of a maniac cast the money upon the 
floor of the temple the clink of those coins sounded 
the requiem of a guilty soul which went out into 
the blackness of despair to a suicidal death. 

One of the convincing proofs of the genuineness 
of Scripture is the manner in which the gospel 
story is told. The writers never attempt to shield 
either themselves or their brethren. At the same 
time it is worthy of note that the Evangelists in 
setting forth the incidents connected with the lives 
which were so closely associated with the Saviour 
have rarely assigned reasons for their acts. Their 
business was to record facts rather than to impute 
motives. Whatever motives therefore we assign to 
the traitor must be drawn from a perusal of the 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



97 



acts of his life and a study of the characteristics 
which those acts display. 

Just what the life of Judas was before his call to 
discipleship we do not know. Like that of the 
entire Twelve it is enveloped in mystery. He 
seems to have been the only one of the Twelve who 
was called from Judea. From time to time his per- 
sonality comes out in the Gospel story. In thinking 
on the life of Judas it is well to understand that he 
was not the victim of circumstances. The oppor- 
tunities of the Eleven likewise came to him. There 
was no coercion in his life but rather a constant 
yearning on the part of Christ to bring him back. 

It is almost idle to speculate upon the proposi- 
tion why did the Saviour call such a man to be a 
disciple? Christ being divine knew the character 
of Judas from his first evil thought. Hardly had 
He reached the climax to His Galilean ministry ere 
He uttered those prophetic words : " Have not I 
chosen you Twelve and one of you is a devil." 
Christ therefore knew from the beginning who 
would betray Him just as He knew who would 
condemn Him from the Roman judgment seat. 
But just as Pontius Pilate acted as a free moral 
agent in sending Christ to the Cross, and is re- 
sponsible before God and the world for his crime, ' 
so Judas Iscariot has no one to blame but himself 
for his act of betrayal and his untimely end. In- 
deed, it seems to us that his downfall presents to 
us by inference the truth and honesty of the Gospel 



98 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



of Christ, for had there been any deceit in it Judas 
would certainly have used it in defense of himself. 
He had characteristics which, had they been sup- 
ported by sterling integrity and Christian char- 
acter, would have made him a useful apostle. He 
was no doubt the best business man among the 
Twelve, and for that reason was made treasurer 
and attended to those duties. But he lacked the 
essence of true-hearted religion and became a hypo- 
crite and a thief. Sad as are the results, the re- 
sponsibility for his guilt rests upon him. 

As long as humanity shall judge and estimate 
the deeds of men the verdict which the world shall 
place upon the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot 
will be: when he faced a great moral problem, he 
did not possess the moral back bone to decide for 
the right. 

Let us now trace some of the incidents in the life 
of Judas and see if we cannot draw from them the 
motives for his crime. The records of the Apostles 
always place him with the Twelve. From the first 
he was the witness of all Christ's deeds and sat at 
His feet throughout the entire three years of His 
teaching. When the Twelve were sent forth Judas 
went with them, was endowed with the same 
miraculous power, and seems like the rest to have 
been successful. But from the first there must 
have been in his heart a longing for the success ob 
a temporal Jewish kingdom. That Christ was the 
Messiah who would carry his ideas to a successful 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



99 



consummation Judas had no doubt. With that end 
in mind he answered Christ's call, for when the 
triumph did come he would receive his share of 
the glory. At first all seemed well. Mighty mir- 
acles were performed, vast multitudes came to the 
Master, the sick were healed, and even the disciples 
were endowed with power over demons — all of 
which was pleasing to the heart of Judas. Then 
came the reaction from his worldly idea. John the 
Baptist, the Forerunner, the grand old Philosopher, 
whose theme was Repentance unto Life, was be- 
headed by Herod in a cowardly manner, with no 
hand to save. Then perhaps came the question: 
If Jesus were the Christ why did He not save John, 1 
and, if He did not save him, why did He not 
avenge his death. His failure to answer any 
earthly challenges by a sign from Heaven, His 
refusal to perform miracles for ostentatious dis- 
play, His constant warnings against hypocrisy and 
covetousness, His avoiding open conflict with the 
Jews, His casting aside the proffered earthly king- 
dom after the feeding of the Five Thousand, and 
His failure to realize any temporal advantage out 
of His Triumphal Entry, — all these events had a 
tendency to disappoint Judas, and arouse in him 
a feeling of resentment. But the event which 
seems to have brought this feeling to a climax, and 
caused him to choose that path which led to a 
traitor's camp and a suicidal death, was that scene 
at Bethany where Mary anointed the Saviour with 



100 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



the Alabaster box of precious ointment. When 
Judas saw that the hopes of adding 300 pence to 
the Treasury were lost, with a hypocritical pre- 
tense of great consideration for the poor, he began 
to criticise the action by saying, " Why was this 
waste of the ointment, it might have been sold for 
more than 300 pence and given to the poor ! " The 
disciples took up the chorus, which shows that, 
then as now, it is possible for wicked hearts to get 
good men to favour an evil scheme by a pretense to 
good motives. The Saviour rebuked him. Stung 
by the reproach, he resolved to get revenge in be- 
trayal. Matthew and Mark record his covenant 
with the chief Priests immediately after this inci- 
dent. That it was performed with deliberation is 
shown from the fact of his seeking the Priests and 
voluntarily offering to deliver. That it was the act 
of a coward is shown from the plan to betray 
Christ during the absence of the multitude. That 
the love of money was involved is shown by the 
traitor's own question, " What will ye give? 99 and 
the small sum, the price of a slave, but reveals the 
depths into which his covetous heart had brought 
him. 

But the acts of his life which prove Judas to be 
a diabolical hypocrite, are those which took place 
amid the solemnity of that Upper Room. It was 
Thursday night of Passion Week. Knowing the 
soul-stirring events which were before Him and 
that Calvary was but a few hours distant, Christ 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



101 



desired to be alone with His disciples for His part- 
ing words of comfort and advice. In an upper 
room He gathered them, away from the din and 
confusion of the city, already crowded with 
pilgrims. 

I can see them as they recline about a table 
which, but for its square corners, would resemble 
a horseshoe in shape. At one end is Peter, who, 
chagrined at the strife for position, has taken the 
lowest seat. Directly opposite him is John, who is 
leaning upon Christ's breast. On the other side of 
the Saviour is Judas. Christ, with His soul sor- 
rowful even unto death, says, " One of you shall 
betray me." Immediately there is a heart search- 
ing and one by one they ask the question, " Lord, 
is it I " ? Simon Peter beckons to John to ask Him 
who the traitor is, and Christ replies : " He it is to 
whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it." 
And as he dipped the sop and handed it to Judas, 
that guilty soul still feigning innocence says, 
" Lord, is it I? " Jesus replied, " Thou hast said." 
And John's record tells us that, "after the sop, 
Satan entered into him." Then Jesus said, " That 
thou doest, do quickly." And he went out. And it 
was night ! ! We need not dwell on the touching 
scenes of the Lord's supper, which divine passover 
was the symbolical representation of humanity's 
redemption through the Atonement. 

It is midnight. Christ and the Eleven are wend- 
ing their way along the silent streets of the Holy 



102 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



City, the light from a full paschal moon shining 
in their faces. Down the slope of Mt. Moriah they 
come and across the brook Kedron to the Garden 
of Gethsemane, the shadows of whose olive trees 
but typify the gloom of the Christ life. Once again 
we pass by a scene, for : 

" Ah, never, never, can we know, 
The depth of that mysterious woe." 

Christ is now standing beside Peter, James and 
John bidding them to sleep on for the hour is come. 
As He speaks, there comes a mob with torches, 
staves and swords piloted by Judas. The fatal kiss 
is given. The aroused Peter strikes with his 
sword. The Saviour's last miracle of mercy is 
performed. All His disciples flee and truly the 
Son of Man has been betrayed into the hands of 
sinners. Just what the movements of Judas were 
from this point we do not know. Perhaps, like 
Peter, he followed afar off until he heard the ver- 
dict from Pilate's Judgment Hall. Then, with re- 
morse, he returns to the Priests and casts the blood 
money at their feet. 

A picture in the royal gallery at Brussels is said 
to represent Judas wandering in the streets of 
Jerusalem on the night of the betrayal. By chance 
he comes upon a group of workmen asleep by a 
fire and at their side lies a newly-made cross which 
was to darken the slope of Golgotha on the mor- 
row. Realizing its awful significance, and that his 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



103 



hand made it possible, he goes out and casts his life 
into the dark depths of suicide. Ah, Judas Is- 
cariot, truly the Son of God had to suffer, but it 
was not meet that thy hand should have been the 
instrument in bringing it about. 

In conclusion let us dwell on a few lessons which 
the sad story of Judas seems to teach. 

An over-weening ambition is dangerous for any 
life. Every man in striving after the supreme 
object of his life should so live that perchance his 
cherished ambition is unattained there would not 
remain in his soul a spirit of resentment or revenge. 

Sorrow over failure is not godly repentance. 
The remorse expressed by Judas is like that of 
Esau over his birthright. It was not heart repent- 
ance, but mere regret that his evil plan had failed. 
Had Judas repented in that upper room Christ 
would have received him. He did not receive 
mercy because he never asked for it. 

Then the career of Judas shows that it is possible 
to live an ungodly life in the midst of the most 
holy influences. Think of associating with the 
Saviour for three years and then betraying him ! ! 
Is there any wonder that hypocrites creep into 
Christ's earthly church when one out of the Twelve 
of His chosen disciples proved a traitor and a 
thief. The life of Judas shows us that sooner or 
later the world will know our lives whether they be 
good or evil. Man's life is never empty. It is 
always full of something ; good deeds or evil deeds. 



104 



JUDAS ISCARIOT 



Acts of zeal or acts of indifference sum up our 
lives. Christ and Satan are antipodes in life. 
When one comes in, the other goes out. No sooner 
had Satan entered the door of the heart of Judas 
than the Saviour's spirit passed out of the same 
door. Finally, we should apply to our lives the 
lesson that even though we die, our lives will con- 
tinue to speak for evil or good. 

" We die not all for our deeds remain. 
To crown with honor or mar with shame 
Through an endless sequence of years to come 
Our lives shall speak when our lips are dumb." 



IX 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 
Psalm 23. 

THE most sublime and artistic poems in all 
literature are the Psalms of David. Written 
by the sweet singer of Israel, they present a 
true picture of life. No man who was an earthly 
ruler in the theocracy of God ever had wider ex- 
periences than had that one who was shepherd, 
courtier, musician, warrior and king. For moral 
beauty, variety of expression and heartfelt wor- 
ship the Psalms stand unique among the poetic pas- 
sages of the Bible. If we desire a true description 
of the Righteous Man and the blessedness which 
flows from godly living, we have it in the very first 
lines of the Psalter. 

"That man hath perfect blessedness 
Who walketh not astray 
In counsel of ungodly men 
Nor stand in sinners way." 

If we wish for a perfect portrayal of the King 
of Zion, and the blessedness which accompanies our 
trust in Him, we shall find it in the second Psalm. 
As we lie down to rest and our mind goes forth in 
loving confidence to God what words better illus- 

105 



106 THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



trate the faith in our hearts than the 121st Psalm 
in the old Rouse version. 

" I to the hills will lift mine eyes 

From whence doth come mine aid? 
My safety cometh from the Lord 

Who Heaven and earth hath made; 
Thy foot he'll not let slide 

Nor will He slumber that thee keeps 
Behold, He that keeps Israel, 

He slumbers not nor sleeps." 

If we have been guilty of gross sin and long for 
peace and forgiveness in confession the 32nd and 
51st Psalms will perfectly express our frame of 
mind. 

David did not confine his songs merely to the 
spiritual. He knew that there came first that which 
Was natural and afterward that which was spirit- 
ual. His discerning mind made everything in na- 
ture a counterpart to some spiritual trust. It has 
been well said that " Nature without revelation is 
like a great Cathedral with divinely pictured win- 
dows seen from without while nature with reve- 
lation is like the same Cathedral seen from within." 
David combined nature and revelation and beheld 
not only the outward beauties of the mountains, the 
trees, the valleys and the brooks, but he saw the 
heart of man and the picture of the human soul as 
it revealed the touch of the divine hand. 

" Breathes there a man with soul so dead who 
never to himself hath said," as he gazed into the 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 107 



Infinite meadows of Heaven : " The Heavens de- 
clare the glory of God and the firmament showeth 
his handiwork." Ah, when man gazes into the 
Heavens which were by God ordained — unto the 
moon and stars which His own fingers framed, as 
he beholds those worlds millions of miles in the 
distance, all maintaining their majestic sweep in 
divine harmony, he instinctively repeats with 
David : " What is man, O God, in the midst of all 
this, that Thou art mindful of him." 

Among all the songs which throughout the ages 
have brought peace and comfort to the Saints of 
God none have taken hold on the mind of the 
church with as mighty a grip as David's 23rd 
Psalm. No other such verses of Holy Writ have 
done more to quicken the faith of Christians and 
bring solace to their minds in times of bitter sor- 
row than these few lines from the pen of Israel's 
wise old King. If David had made no other contri- 
bution to the word of God than this short Psalm he 
would have wrought a great mission for mankind ; 
his name would still have been immortal in the 
hearts of Christendom. In beautiful thought and 
simplicity of expression the sweet singer brings out 
in clear, ringing notes the peculiar guidance with 
which Jehovah surrounds His trusting children. 
Calm in confidence, hopeful in its outlook, clear in 
its vision, this Psalm seems to take us to some lofty 
eminence and presents a magnificent view of the 
domain of God's spiritual guidance. Henry Ward 



108 THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



Beecher calls this song " The Nightingale Psalm." 
He likens it to that " small bird of homely feather 
singing shyly out of obscurity, but filling the air of 
the whole world about it with melodious joy." He 
says, " Blessed be the day on which that Psalm was 
born," and he compares it to a Pilgrim whom God 
has sent forth " to travel up and down the earth 
singing a strange melody," which will cause all who 
hear and listen to forget the sorrows of their souls. 
Truly it has been a messenger of Jehovah to the 
old and young, to the rich and poor. There is no 
age, class or condition to whom it does not speak 
and for whom it cannot be a bright gem for devo- 
tional study. There is no speech nor language 
cognizant of the love of God where its voice has 
not been heard. Its line is gone out through all the 
earth and its words to the end of the world. 

Among all the songs of Zion these words have 
always been my special favourite. For I was 
reared in the old Scotch-Irish Covenanter Church, 
an organization which believes in exclusive Psalm- 
ody for the worship of God, and while I never 
could bring my mind to an acceptance of this view, 
there never has been any antagonism in my mind 
for those who did entertain it. I have always 
loved both Hymns and Psalms, and could sing 
them both with pleasure and profit. I cannot re- 
call the time when I could not repeat this Psalm, 
although I never sat down and committed it to 
memory. Its frequent repetition in public and 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 109 



private devotions has indelibly stamped its lines 
upon my mind. How vividly there comes back to 
me the scenes of my boyhood days when frequently 
at morning and evening worship our family would 
sing this Psalm. How pleasant is my recollection 
of seeing my grandfather, who stood for 40 years 
as Present or of that Covenanter Congregation, rise 
and start the tune to " The Lord is my Shepherd." 
There is an ineffable sweetness about this Psalm 
that we need not marvel that it has endeared itself 
to every congregation in the history of the church. 
Through the ages to come its notes will go on com- 
forting the dying and renewing the faith of the 
broken-hearted until at last in God's house forever- 
more our dwelling place shall be. 

Just what period in the life of David the Shep- 
herd Psalm was written no one will ever know. 
The whole tenor of the Psalm seems to set forth 
the results of a mature mind. Unquestionably the 
first verses were suggested by his own experiences 
as a tender of sheep, and the second portion might 
have come at a time when David grew reminiscent 
on his flight during Absalom's rebellion. The 
beautiful analogies of this Psalm have touched the 
hearts of humanity because we know they picture 
before us the deepest experiences of their author's 
life. None of the figures here are the result of mere 
imagination. David knew what shepherd life in 
the hill cotmtry of Judea meant; because he had 
followed the flocks for years ere he was called to 



110 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



the Court of Saul. Under a starry Palestine sky 
he had lain many a night guarding his flocks, and 
he knew the results of eternal vigilance as well as 
its cost. Down by the rippling water brooks he 
had led his sheep and along the green slopes of the 
hillside he had watched them feed. He understood 
perfectly the general silliness of sheep ; their prone- 
ness to wander; the ease with which they were 
stampeded, and how, where one went, the balance 
of the flock would follow with a rush whether into 
danger or safety. He understood their natural 
fear as well as their trustful spirit of sympathy 
and attachment which develops in the heart of a 
shepherd toward his flock. What a flood tide of 
memory pictures must have passed over David's 
mind as he wrote that Psalm! How he must 
have recalled the burning sun and the biting 
frost; the times when he placed his life in jeop- 
ardy to kill a lion and a bear; those days of 
never-ending activity and those long nights of 
solitude. All these scenes we can behold as mem- 
ory pictures between the lines of this wonderful 
Psalm. 

The theme of the Twenty-third Psalm is very 
naturally the Good Shepherd and the threads of 
doctrine woven all through its fabric are likewise 
discernible. They are the comfort, the guidance, 
the protecting care which Jehovah throws about 
the flock of Israel. A good shepherd knows his 
sheep, their dispositions, their peculiarities. He 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 111 



can call them all by name and the sheep in turn 
recognize the voice of their shepherd and will come 
at his call. So God knows his people ; their temp- 
tations, their doubts, their joys and sorrows, their 
secret longings. He calls His children all by name, 
but the analogy breaks here, for many of God's 
children do not come to Him when they recognize 
His voice. 

The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep. 
When danger surrounds his flock his first thought 
is protection for them regardless of the risk in- 
curred for himself. When a furious storm bursts 
over the hills and valleys, into the teeth of that 
storm goes the shepherd. In the midst of rain, 
sleet and snow he gathers his flock together and 
if a straying sheep be lost the shepherd never re- 
laxes in his search until it is safe within the fold, 
and none but the shepherd realizes the spirit of 
danger, anxiety and sacrifice in that search. When 
a wild animal would destroy and scatter the flock 
there stands the shepherd protecting, if need be, 
with his life. 

So Christ is a good shepherd for His people. 
He passed through the deep waters for them and 
on through the valley of humiliation and death in 
His search for lost souls. 

" Out in the desert he hears them cry, 
Sick and helpless and ready to die; 
But none of the ransomed ever knew 
How deep were the waters crossed 



112 THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



Nor how dark was the night when the Lord passed 
through 

Ere he found His sheep that were lost" 

The spiritual application of this Psalm follows 
its natural divisions. Our souls are satisfied in 
every want. They rest amid green pastures. They 
drink the true waters of life and enjoy true restora- 
tion and guidance. In the midst of grief they have 
comfort and solace ; in the midst of danger, victory 
over enemies, and at last are privileged to enjoy an 
endless eternity around God's throne. 

Truly, we can take this Psalm and make it our 
very own. One of the best things about it is the 
personal element which it contains. David said: 
" The Lord is my Shepherd.'' What a wealth of 
comfort there is in that little word " my." Sup- 
pose David had said : The Lord is a Shepherd, or 
even the Lord is our Shepherd. How much the 
first verse would lose in power. Ah, there is no 
glittering generality here. David begins by bring- 
ing straight home the gracious, indisputable fact : 
" The Lord is my Shepherd." 

Someone has told the story of a lady who awak- 
ened one morning by a tapping against her bed- 
room window. Looking up she saw a butterfly 
fluttering about the glass in great fright while a 
sparrow on the other side of the glass was trying 
to reach the butterfly. The butterfly did not see 
the glass, but saw the sparrow and instinctively 
felt its danger. The sparrow did not see the glass, 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 113 



but saw the butterfly and expected every moment 
to capture it. Yet all the while that butterfly was 
as safe as though it had been miles away from the 
sparrow. So many times God brings between us 
and our enemies an invisible wall of protection so 
that in the midst of death we need fear no evil. 

May He be the Shepherd of our souls from 
henceforth and fill our cups of joy and blessing to 
overflowing. May He guide us in the paths of 
righteousness for His name's sake, and when at 
last we walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death may the words which have comforted the 
dying saints throughout the ages cause us to fear 
no evil because His rod and staff shall comfort us. 

" Surely goodness and mercy all my life 
Shall surely follow me; 
And in God's house forever more 
My dwelling place shall be." 

* In Pastures Green? " Not always, Sometimes He 
Who knowest best, in kindness leadeth me 
In weary ways, where heavy shadows be. 

Out of the sunshine warm and soft and bright 
Out of the sunshine into the darkest night; 
I oft would faint with sorrow and afright. 

Only for this — I know He holds my hand, 
So, whether in the green or desert land; 
I trust, although I may not understand. 

And by still waters? No, not always so; 
Ofttimes the heavy tempests round me blow; 
And o'er my soul the waves and billows go. 



114 THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



But when the storm beats loudest, and I cry, 
Aloud for help, the Master standeth by, 
And whispers to my soul, " Lo, it is I." 

And more than this: Wher'er the pathway lead 
He gives to me no helpless broken reed 
But His own hand sufficient for my need. 

So where he leads me I can safely go 
And in the blest hereafter I shall know 
Why in His wisdom He hath led me so." 



X 



THE PRODIGAL SON 
Luke 15:11-32. 

THE parable of the Prodigal Son has been 
called the crown and the pearl of all par- 
ables. For divine revelation concerning the 
attitude of a longsuffering Saviour, for hope 
thrown out to a soul lost in the depths of sin, for 
the moral effect of repentance, for the love and joy 
over a penitent sinner redeemed, this story stands 
without an equal in Holy Writ. The parable con- 
tains a complete narrative of a sinner wandering 
from his father's house. It describes with minute- 
ness of detail his steps back to the old home. Just 
as there can be thrown on the retina of the eye the 
view of an entire landscape, so within the narrow 
compass of this parable we see displayed in a large 
measure the wisdom, the longsuffering, the divine 
love of our Heavenly Father. 

This parable is perhaps the most familiar of any 
which fell from the lips of Jesus. Almost every 
Sabbath School scholar who is at all conversant 
with the Bible, can give the outline of this story. 
Its content bears such a striking analogy to the 
scenes of the present day that one need not marvel 
that it leaves an impression upon the reader's mind. 

115 



116 THE PRODIGAL SON 



This parable must be closely associated with the 
two which immediately precede it, The Lost Sheep 
and the Lost Coin. Since the Son of Man had 
come to seek and to save that which was lost His 
gospel was distinctly for the Lost. It was a gospel 
of repentance and forgiveness, and threw out a 
hope to the lost sinner. It was spoken toward the 
end of the third year of the Saviours ministry, 
while He was preaching in Perea, and grew out of 
His frequent intercourse with publicans and sin- 
ners. It came at a time when the Saviour was 
unfolding His plan of a salvation that was to be 
universal in its scope, and gives to humanity a vis- 
ion of His loving heart. 

We find in this story six scenes. It begins with 
a home scene. There was a father and his two 
sons. The younger son, knowing by the Jewish 
law of inheritance, at the death of his father he 
would be entitled to one-third of the property, 
asked for a division of the property that he might 
take his share. The reasons for the request are 
apparent from the actions of the young man. The 
environments of his home did not afford him an 
opportunity to have what he pleased to call a 
chance to see the world. To realize this ambition 
two things were necessary. He must first get away 
from the restraining influences of his father, and 
he must supplement this freedom with plenty of 
money. The young man had his way. The prop- 
erty was divided. The fact that the father con- 



THE PRODIGAL SON 117 



sented to the son's departure is worthy of a 
thought. He might have said: "You are too 
young, my son, to go out into the world, especially 
with ample means at your disposal. You know 
nothing of the ways of the world. You are igno- 
rant of the fact that there are plenty of people in 
the world who are just waiting for young fellows 
like you to help them spend their money, and then 
set them adrift. ,, He might have warned him of 
the evil habits he would acquire. But, he said 
nothing and divided unto him his living. He al- 
lowed the young man to have the desire of his 
heart: freedom from parental control and an 
abundance of this world's goods. 

Not many days later the young man was off. 
Away he goes into a far country. He breaks the 
old family ties and leaves the home of his child- 
hood. He goes out with a light heart and a foolish 
head to see the world. For a time he sets a fast 
pace. He revels in luxury and vice. He spent his 
money in such a way that he received no adequate 
return for it, and at the end of a short period he 
had nothing to show for his fortune. He was a 
practical illustration of the oft-repeated truth that 
" a fool and his money are soon parted." He 
wanted to see life, but he found death. He found 
that the freedom and enjoyment he had so keenly 
anticipated did not last long. Riotous living needs 
no special judgment of Providence. It brings its 
own reward. His soap bubble burst. His dissi- 



118 THE PRODIGAL SON 



pated life and wasted opportunities were bearing 
fruit. His large fortune had been cast to the wind 
as one tosses the chaff to the winnowing. When 
the famine came, just when he needed his means, 
he found himself in want. His former rollicking 
companions had gone. They had deserted him. 
He was a stranger in a strange land, and no man 
gave unto him. In despair he was compelled to do 
that which a Jew would do only as a last resort. 
He joined himself to a citizen of that country, who 
sent him into the field to herd swine. So great 
were the pangs of hunger upon him that he ard- 
ently desired to satisfy himself with the bean husks 
upon which the swine fed. 

What a picture of disappointed ambition is this 
young man! His highest ideal as he left his 
father's house was worldly pleasure. He sought 
to be his own Master, he finds himself a slave. 
He had sought freedom, he had found bond- 
age. He had sold himself to the world and this 
was his pay. 

The scene changes. After all, this hard lot 
made the young man do what he had never done 
before — think seriously. Adversity had brought 
him to his senses. The text says, " He came to 
himself." This was the most critical moment in 
his life. As he glanced back at his course strewn 
with the wrecks of misspent days, he thinks, 
" What a fool I have been." Just as it requires a 
dark room in which to develop the latent image of 



THE PRODIGAL SON 119 



the photographer's plate, so it required the dark 
hours of adversity, poverty, hunger and bitter dis- 
appointment to bring out in this young man's soul 
the sweet picture of home. He must have thought : 
" Here I am feeding hogs when I might have been 
at home living in comfort. Here I am an outcast 
perishing with hunger, when in my father's house 
servants have enough and to spare." As he drew 
a mental picture of his present and past he came to 
himself. That place from which he had longed to 
get away now seemed to him the dearest place in 
all the world — his father's house. 

But there came over his soul not merely a feel- 
ing. That feeling was backed by a spirit of resolu- 
tion. The same will power which took him away 
is now reversed and brings him back. He returns 
to his father's house, not with pride, but in humil- 
ity, not with excuses, but with confession, not even 
claiming sonship, but asking for service. Such a 
return was the triumph of faith. The beginning of 
the end is at hand. While the son was yet a great 
way off the father saw him, had compassion on 
him, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him, 
which was the sign of reconciliation and peace. 
The son had wronged him, squandered his money, 
made his heart sad, and disgraced his good name, 
but he was still his boy, and as such he would be 
received. So he places on him, not the emblems of 
slavery, but those of freedom, a ring on his hand, 
shoes on his feet, a new robe, and killing the fatted 



120 THE PRODIGAL SON 



calf makes a great feast for the household because 
the lost son had been found. 

Our purpose is to deal with the Prodigal rather 
than the Elder Brother. The latter is a theme in 
itself. If this parable teaches any spiritual truth it 
fittingly portrays God and His people. It gives us 
a true picture of the path of the sinful soul and its 
restoration. It represents God and His wandering 
sheep. The home is Christ's Church, which is a 
haven of comfort and safety. How many times 
young men of today long for a so-called freedom 
and a "good time.' , Their heart and will are 
swayed by an ungovernable appetite for worldly 
things which, to be satisfied, necessitates their cast- 
ing aside the Church and God. Just as the Jewish 
father allowed his son to leave home, though doubt- 
less it cost him distress of mind and many a heart- 
ache, so God recognizes the freedom of the will in 
everything in this world and if a man wills to do a 
thing wrong it can easily be done. But he will soon 
find that sowing wild oats is not all happiness. He 
will soon discover that wretchedness is the result 
of Sin; he will soon see that the Law of Sowing 
and Reaping finds its natural expression in the 
deeds of his life. 

Young men of today: you who are wandering 
or contemplating that journey, into a sphere away 
from the restraining influence of home and church, 
mark well the consequences of wasting the sub- 
stance of your life in riotous living. The famine 



THE PRODIGAL SON 121 



will surely come and the husks of misspent days 
will be your portion. " Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap." Perhaps the most baneful influence in 
any man's life is the time when he longs for what 
the world calls " a good time." 

Some one has described a singular tree which 
bears the appropriate name of the Judas tree. The 
blossoms are of a brilliant crimson and their beauty 
and fragrance attract innumerable insects. Es- 
pecially is the wandering bee drawn to them to 
gather honey. But every bee that lights upon its 
blossoms imbibes a fatal opiate and drops dead. 
Beneath the branches of this enticing tree are 
strewn the bodies of thousands of dead bees. They 
were seeking honey, they found death. This tree 
is a vivid emblem of the deceit fulness of Sin. The 
Devil has his Judas tree whose bright crimson blos- 
soms entice the young men of today. Thousands 
of young men are lured on. They imbibe freely. 
They mean no harm. They are seeking for the 
sweetness of life, they find the bitter dregs of 
death. Beneath this Judas Tree are lying thous- 
ands of lives wrecked in early manhood because 
Satan deluded them by painting Sin in bright 
colours. 

True repentance will always lead to a triumph 
of one's faith. Whenever any person begins to 
realize his own sense of wrong and supports this 
feeling with a resolve to go back to God and by 



122 THE PRODIGAL SON 



faith carries that resolution into effect, and with a 
cry of imworthiness says, like David of old, 
" Gainst Thee, Thee only have I .sinned," the atti- 
tude of the Father will always be that of recon- 
ciliation and Peace. No sinner ever makes a move 
toward God that Johovah does not go more than 
half way to meet him. God is always ready with 
compassion and forgiveness, with joy and honour 
and with parental love to welcome the wanderer 
home. When once home, the returned Prodigal is 
not a slave, but a son of God and a joint heir with 
Christ. The robe of Christ's righteousness will 
cover his nakedness, the seal of divine approval 
will be given his spirit and with his feet shod with 
the preparation of the Gospel of Peace he shall 
have power to walk in the ways of God. 

To you who are young men, remember that when 
a sheep is lost and returned, it may be the same 
sheep. When a coin is lost and found it may be 
the same coin, having the same value as before it 
was lost. But when a young man is lost and re- 
stored he is never the same boy. No young man 
can follow a career of profligacy and not pay for it. 
He will never be the same as before his fall. The 
most important time in any young man's life is 
when he has sense enough calmly to consider his 
life, from the standpoint of its present, past, and 
future. To my mind the most thrilling words of 
this entire narrative are those words, " He came 
unto himself." That was the turning of the tide, 



THE PRODIGAL SON 123 



and so will it be with all of us if we will heed the 
warning. 

The Gospel of today is a gospel of Faith, Re- 
pentance and Forgiveness. Just as the restoration 
of that which was lost creates within us a greater 
joy than that which we express for what we still 
possess, so there is joy in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth more than for ninety and nine just 
persons who have no need of repentance. 

The Baltimore Advocate tells of one of the 
sights which greets the traveller's eye along the 
beach of the Alaskan coast. For twelve hundred 
miles along the coast north of Seattle the debris is 
cast up by the Pacific current along the great sand 
dunes. Among other things great heaps of valu- 
able logs are thrown ashore from all the coasts of 
the wide Pacific, from Hawaii, and from Japan 
and China, even from far away India, The start- 
ing places of these great logs are unknown. 
Among them are valuable woods like the camphor 
tree, mahogany, redwood and royal pines. They 
sometimes bear the names of the men who cut 
them, or the saw mills for which they were des- 
tined, but which they never reached. Each season 
piles them up until the shore line is extended into 
the sea. Many of them are perishing or already 
they have turned to stone. Others buried in the 
silt have turned to coal. It is a sad waste of much 
valuable property. 

But there is a shore strewn with a sadder wreck- 



124 THE PRODIGAL SON 



age than the big logs in Alaska's Arctic Cove, and 
it is found alike in all our countries and cities. It 
is the beach where countless young men and 
women, reared under good home influences, have 
drifted away from their father's prayers and their 
mother's entreaties, and caught in the current of 
worldliness and folly, have at last been cast upon 
some bleak and desolate beach to perish miserably, 
far, far, away from the purity of home and the 
hope of heaven, gathered with the refuse of the 
world's derelicts." There is only one hope. It is 
the hope of the Prodigal. It is to turn back. It is 
to avoid the treacherous undertow which is sweep- 
ing so many victims out to sea and then at last to 
wash them on shore dead. 

" Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!" 

" Just as I am — Thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, 
Because Thy promise I believe, 
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!" 



XI 



PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 

" The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree : he 
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon/' — Psalm 92 :i2. 

ONE of God's richest blessings as a gift from 
the vegetable kingdom is trees. " To him 
who in the love of nature holds communion 
with her visible forms she speaks a various lang- 
uage/ ' What man as he lives the truth of these 
immortal lines has not turned his mind from the 
hills and the valleys, the flowers and the grass to 
those monarchs of the forest. 

What man reared in a mountainous country or 
the great lumber regions has not gained inspiration 
from communion with the majestic pine trees. 
What former resident of the Buckeye state does not 
cherish the memory of his boyhood days when as 
a lad, he roamed in the woods and chased the squir- 
rels amid those giants of beech and chestnut. 
What son of Illinois or Iowa has banished forever 
the memory of his care free days when he climbed 
the walnut and hickory trees, and pushed his bare 
feet over the banks of a rippling creek, or cut the 
whistle twigs from the bending willows which lined 
the banks. What farmer has not had his heart 
gladdened by having on the border line of his field 

125 



126 PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 



a tall oak tree neath the shade of whose sheltering 
boughs he could pause on a hot summer day and 
bare his head in peace from the sweltering sun. 
How much trees add to the pleasantness of man's 
environment. No wonder the pioneer Kansans 
grew lonesome as in the early days they gazed over 
the broad expanse of the western prairies and saw 
endlessly stretching toward the horizon nothing but 
a boundless expanse of unbroken sod. No wonder 
they planted the cotton wood to relieve life's barren 
monotony. Today as the beautiful maples and elms 
line the streets of the cities and towns of the Mid- 
dle West do they not add beauty to our homes and 
good cheer to our lives. Laying aside the useful- 
ness of trees and the product of their fruit and 
judging them only from the standpoint of artistic 
beauty, humanity's verdict would be that they 
should be classed as one of the rarest of blessings 
and a choice gift from the hand of a bountiful 
creator. Indeed, the Almighty so reckoned it, for 
in His summary of the blessings of creation he 
said : " Behold I have given and made to grow, 
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for 
food." He summed up the knowledge of good and 
evil and the essence of all life, in trees. Solomon 
declared that while the fear of the Lord was the 
beginning of wisdom, Wisdom herself was a tree 
of life. David in seeking a simile for the righteous 
man said that he was like a tree planted by a river, 
perennial verdure crowning its boughs and yield- 



PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 127 



ing its fruit in its season ; that the righteous should 
flourish like the Palm tree and yield her fruit in 
old age. 

The vegetation of Palestine is exceedingly pro- 
lific. Especially was this true in Bible times when 
a mighty civilization extended throughout the Jor- 
dan valley. Those vineyard terraces, the profusion 
of wild flowers — daisies, anemones and tulips — 
above all the gorgeous lilies, whose delicate hues 
the Saviour declared excelled the royal robes of a 
King, — added a touch of beauty to that land made 
immortal by the footprints of our Lord, which 
even today relieves its barren monotony. 

Not only was this true of the flowers, but in the 
larger forms of vegetable life. A description of 
the trees of olden times partially through their 
sacred associations, form many bright interludes in 
the scriptural narratives. The olive trees neath 
whose drooping limbs the Saviour so often paused ; 
the fig tree which received His withering touch; 
the pomegranate whose scarlet blossom was a thing 
of beauty; the oaks of Mamre, where Abraham 
made his home, and above all those giant cedars of 
Lebanon, whose sweeping branches caused the 
Arabs to speak of them as the trees of God, will 
ever be to the lover of Bible lore a subject intensely 
interesting. 

But among the trees of ancient Palestine, there 
is one which, for perennial verdure, renewal of 
life, power of vegetation, and stateliness of growth, 



128 PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 



stands without a peer : It is the Palm tree, called 
by the orientals the King of Trees. There are 
many different species included under this generic 
term, but we have special reference to the Date 
Palm, which flourishes above all others in Nubia 
and Egypt, and was the tree par excellence in the 
Jordan Valley. This tree, with its tall graceful 
trunk, rises to a heighth of sixty to one hundred 
feet. Crowned at the summit with a canopy of 
feathery leaves neath whose shadows cluster great 
quantities of fruit, it stands a fit type of royalty in 
the vegetable kingdom. It was one of the most 
serviceable of trees and could be put to a greater 
variety of uses than any other. The Arabs are 
said to have had 360 epithets which they gave to 
the Date Palm and 360 uses to which it could be 
applied. They used its fruit for their own food 
and ground its seeds for their camels. Out of its 
leaves they made their baskets, out of its trunk 
their cages and fences, and out of its bark they 
made their fuel. Mohammed declared that the 
Date Palm was created in Paradise of the same 
earth out of which Adam was made, and Moslem 
tradition asserts that Adam was permitted to take 
three things out of Paradise — a myrtle as the 
sweetest scented flower, an ear of wheat as the best 
food, and the Date Palm as the choice among 
fruits. It was near a grove of Palm trees that the 
Israelites camped during the Exodus by the twelve 
wells of Elim. It was the wood of the Palm tree 



PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 129 



which Solomon took to ornament his magnificent 
temple. When Moses ascended Mt. Pisgah's lofty 
summit, to take his farewell look into that beautiful 
country where he was not permitted to go, one of 
the visions of beauty which caught his eye was the 
Palm groves of Jericho, whose tapering, sharp 
pointed leaves waved like glossy plumes in that 
warm Palestinian sunlight. L,et us take up the 
general characteristics displayed by the Palm and 
see if David were right when he compared it to the 
individual Christian who conducted his life in ac- 
cordance with the ways of Salvation. 

First of all the Palm tree will grow surrounded 
by the barren wastes of the desert, but it will not 
grow where no moisture abounds. Sunlight and 
water are the two requisites of its growth. Out on 
the broad expanse of the desert tableland nature at 
times makes a depression which proves a receptacle 
for what little rain may fall and gather itself from 
the hillsides. Here the Palm tree will flourish and 
there is no more charming or majestic sight to the 
weary traveller than when he sees from afar the 
date palm proudly raising its leafy head and turn- 
ing its face toward the sun. He knows that there 
he will find cool shade and perchance a spring of 
water from which he may quench his thirst and 
refresh his tired beast. The Palm tree forms an 
oasis in the desert and is a bright spot amid a 
barren region. 

Then the Date Palm is what the botanists term 



130 PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 



an Endogenous tree, that is, its growth is from 
within, out. Its trunk is composed of interlacing 
fibres, which are noted for their lightness, flexibil- 
ity and strength. This trunk grows by additions 
from above and does not materially increase in 
thickness. Its growth is steady all the year. Win- 
ter rains or summer's drouth do not affect it. 
Calmly it views the world, patiently it performs its 
mission, majestic it stands a prince in the vege- 
table kingdom. 

Another striking characteristic of the palm tree 
is its uprightness. Straight as an arrow it grows 
into the air, its cylindrical trunk unbroken by off- 
shooting branches. 

The source of life of the Palm tree is not visible 
to the naked eye. It consists of an immense tube 
root which lies just beneath the surface of the 
ground, from which extend small cord-like roots, 
which spread laterally and push themselves into 
the soil to the depth of six or eight feet and absorb 
the moisture. Thus the palm tree is firmly em- 
bedded and stands on a firm foundation, weather- 
ing the scorching sun and blighting winds. Grace- 
fully it sways to and fro in the breezes and during 
a fierce gale it bends, but seldom breaks, and when 
the storm is over it is found still in its place, erect 
and upright. 

Then the Palm tree is perennial in its verdure. 
All through the year it gives evidence of its life. 
No matter when the weary traveller pauses beneath 



PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 131 



its shadows, he will find there a haven of rest. 
Yet the palm is not merely a shade tree. It is ex- 
ceedingly productive and abundant in its fruit A 
single tree will bear from 200 to 400 pounds of 
dates in a year. 

Finally, this tree is an emblem of victory. In 
ancient times when conquerors returned in royal 
triumph their cohorts always carried palms. When 
Jesus made His triumphal entry into the Holy City 
His followers greeted Him with shouts of praise 
and waving palms. Surely a tree with such a 
diversity of gifts is an appropriate emblem of the 
righteous man. For, my friends, Christianity is 
not only a religion of life, Christianity is a religion 
of growth. No sooner is the child of God born 
anew than spiritual development begins. It may 
be in an apparent desert, but somewhere there is 
spiritual moisture sufficient to sustain the soul life. 
Out in the broad expanse of the world's waste, 
perchance in the slums of a great city or in a 
heathen clime, a soul has looked up and received V 
the showers of God's blessing and the sunshine of 
His love. Proudly this palm tree Christian lifts 
his head and turns his face toward the Sun of 
Righteousness. Upward he grows and blesses the 
world. He offers a welcome sight to the weary 
traveller stained with the dusts of sin. He brings 
glad tidings of life in the midst of death. He re- 
veals a well of water springing up unto everlasting 
life. He is a veritable oasis in a spiritual desert. 



132 PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 



The growth of the Palm tree Christian is from 
within, out. Christianity is a religion of the heart. 
The Christian's spiritual body is composed of inter- 
lacing soul fibres strong and flexible, which present 
an outward type of beauty in temper, speech and 
behaviour. 

The Palm tree Christian grows by additions 
from above. He adds to his faith virtue, knowK 
edge, and self control, godliness, brotherly kind- 
ness and charity. This growth is steady and irre- 
pressible. Through winter's cold and summer's 
heat it performs its mission. Silently, patiently, 
uprightly he stands — a prince in the Kingdom of 
God. 

The Christian's source of life is not visible to the 
naked eye. He has a great root of Faith buried 
beneath the surface. From this spreads those small 
cord-like roots of Christian graces which deeply 
embed themselves in the soul of the church. Then 
w r hen the storms of temptations sweep over him he 
bends, but never breaks. The morrow finds him 
the same true Christian standing erect in his place. 
Every day in the year the Christian gives evidence 
of his life. Whoever comes to him finds a message 
of peace and a well of salvation. 

He is not merely a shade tree Christian. No 
mere sanctified influence emanates from his life. 
He tests his discipleship in fruit bearing. He has 
listened to his Master's words, " Herein is my 
Father glorified that ye bear much fruit." Farther- 



PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 133 



est from earth and nearest to God, clustered near 
the healing leaves of Salvation, you shall find the 
fruit of his spirit : " Love, joy, peace, longsuffer- 
ing, gentleness, meekness, faith, self-control: 
against such there is no law/' 

Finally the true Christian is a fitting emblem of 
victory. In the name of his Captain he has con- 
quered his foes of death and sin and hell. By the 
grace that has been given to him he has won the 
battle of life. In strength of character and beauty 
of life he stands before the King. The fruitage of 
faith and love he lays at the Masters feet, and 
waving his palm of victory he receives his crown 
of glory. 

Are we palm tree Christians? Do we present an 
erect and upright character of moral excellence 
before the world, a type of spiritual beauty and 
holiness? Are we growing Christians, and is that 
growth from within, out? from within our hearts 
out to the world? Does our religion make glad 
the ones we meet in the world, do they find in us a 
haven of rest, a haven of spiritual refreshment? 
Are the roots of a strong Christian faith deeply 
buried in the heart of Christ, so that the winds of 
temptation which come and sway our life will not 
break our character? Are we mere shade tree 
Christians, or do we glorify the Saviour with the 
fruits of our lives? Have we won a complete 
victory over Sin? 

If we have, we will bear the seal of the living 



134 PALM-TREE CHRISTIANS 



God and in the coming days after a life of useful- 
ness and service we shall be privileged to join that 
great multitude which no man can number of all 
nations, kindreds, peoples and tongues, which shall 
stand before the throne of God, clothed in white 
robes and with palms in their hands, crying, 
"salvation, Blessing and Glory and Wisdom: 
Thanksgiving, Honour, Power and Might, be unto 
our God forever and ever, amen. 



XII 



CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 



" And He is the head of the body, the Church; who is 
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all 
things He might have the preeminence." — Col. i :i& 

4 STATE of pre-eminence presents a quality 



of being in which superiority and distinction 



from others is manifested to a remarkable 
degree. Pre-eminence in any sphere of life means 
that a man is supremely distinguished, and pos- 
sesses remarkable attainments which make him 
unusually conspicuous. As a rule pre-eminence 
comes to but few men, and when it does come it is 
confined to that particular sphere in which the 
energies, talents and life service of the individual 
have been centered, and is ofttimes narrowed to 
the age in which he lives, and even then his honours 
remain a matter of dispute among critics of his 
day, who desire to share his glory with others they 
deem equally worthy. 

Socrates and Plato stood pre-eminent as phil- 
osophers. Hannibal, Alexander, Julius Caesar and 
Napoleon stood pre-eminent in military genius. 
Shakespeare stood pre-eminent as a dramatist, John 
Milton as an epic poet, John Ruskin as a prose 
writer. Stevenson, Watt, Robert Fulton, Morse, 




135 



136 CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 

EH Whitney and McCormick have attained rare 
distinction in the world of invention. Thomas 
Edison remains the country's honoured wizard in 
the world of electricity. Louis Aggasiz reached 
the mountain tops as a naturalist, while Wagner, 
Lizst and Handel stand pre-eminent as composers. 

But it remains for Religion and the Church to 
present One whose matchless personality occupies 
the most commanding and outstanding position in 
the world's history. Our calendar has been fash- 
ioned in accordance with His birth. Millions of 
people bow to His Will, and worship His Name 
with a heart reverence and a Godly fear, and the 
longer His Name and teaching reach the eyes, ears 
and hearts of the world's thinking men and women 
they ascribe to the Man of Galilee pre-eminence in 
all things. 

Jesus stands forth pre-eminent in the literature 
of the world. More libraries are filled with facts 
and theories and expositions of the philosophy and 
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than any other 
being who ever lived. John said that if the sayings 
of Jesus had been published the world itself could 
scarcely contain the books. Think of the master 
minds who have written on just the life of our 
Lord: Renan, Andrews, Farrar, Strauss, Tissot, 
Hanna and Edersheim. Think of the devotional 
pages in literature of which the beautiful spirit of 
Jesus Christ was the inspiration. In history, in 
poetry, in the drama, in philosophy and in fiction, 



CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 137 



no name stands in influence and power above the 
name of Jesus. No ethical faith surmounts His 
beliefs ; no love surpasses the manifestation of the 
Christ love. No ideals are loftier than those He 
set before men. No judgments are more severe; 
no passion more strongly exemplified ; no spirit of 
humility more pronounced. The teachings of Jesus 
are pre-eminent in moulding the thought of the 
world in every age since He walked the valley of 
the Jordan and breathed the pure air of the hill 
country of Judea. The philosophy of the Koran, 
of Brahminism, Buddhism, Confucianism cannot 
compare in spiritual power or ideals with the prac- 
tical philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount. 

Epicureanism, Stoicism, Paganism do not com- 
pare either in refined culture or spiritual comfort, 
in sober thought or just judgment, stern invective 
or loving pleading, beautiful imagery, or exalted 
faith, with the teachings of our Lord. Nothing 
has ever entered into the spirit of life and experi- 
ence of human souls like the teaching of Jesus. 
For vitality in ideas, for breadth of vision, for 
loftiness of ideals, for truth essential to right liv- 
ing, nothing has approached the life of the Gali- 
lean. Life is one great drama. In it there are 
displayed the elements of both the human and the 
divine. As life's plot is unfolded before the human 
race the minds of the world's greatest thinkers 
have been centered upon the ideas of sin, retribu- 
tion and reconciliation, from the days when Homer 



138 CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 



sang down to the utterances of George Elliott and 
Henry Van Dyke. 

Christ's pre-eminence was not an inferior, manu- 
factured distinction, whereby as a prodigy He stood 
in the limelight of public attention. Among all 
the mountain tops of character and moral excel- 
lence the name of Jesus stands upon the summit of 
the highest range. Jesus was pre-eminent in His 
boyhood. The days of His youth were like the 
unfolding of a perfect flower. In grace and truth 
and beautifying power His character developed 
without a flaw. Wherever in history a critic of 
Christ has been found there is not one who can 
point to a single defect in His life. In this respect 
He stands unique among all the men who ever 
lived. Celestial in His childhood, spotless in His 
manhood, the Nazarene has appealed to the sober 
judgment of the ages. Christ was the incarnation 
of innocence, yet no one could conceive of Him 
ever displaying weakness. He had true piety, but 
He never manifested the spirit of repentance. He 
never acknowledged sin or shortcomings, yet where 
is the man who would call Him egotistical. The 
pangs of guilt for wrong doing never came to His 
life. He never felt compunction of conscience 
over anything He did. No idea of unworthiness 
ever troubled His soul. Yet He was in no wise 
self-righteous. He united in His life all those 
peculiar characteristics which common humanity 
finds it so difficult to display with " an unfaltering 



CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 139 



grace and beauty," wonderful to behold. Lofty in 
His bearing, heroic in His composure, enthusiastic 
in His life mission, Jesus of Nazareth went about 
doing good and when at last His vicarious death 
brought redemption to every sin-cursed soul that 
seeks redemption, we think of Him not as a pre- 
tender or as an individual with extravagant claims, 
but as the natural exemplification of a divine 
product. 

Jesus Christ stands pre-eminent in the world of 
music. The greatest of all cantatas do honor to 
His name. The world's greatest hymns sing the 
praises of the Messiah. Think of the never-dying 
songs of Watt, Newmann, Heber, Wesley and 
Milton. Common songs ebb and flow before the 
public mind, but the songs of Jesus never die. 
Worldly themes in music are forgotten, but the 
music which centers about the inspirational spirit 
of the Son of God will last until that innumerable 
company of the redeemed shall sing the Hallelujah 
Chorus around the great white throne. 

The personality of Jesus Christ stands pre- 
eminent in art. Think of Tissot and his marvel- 
lous presentation of those scenes from the life of 
Christ. Mary Magdalene, Jairus, and the Cruci- 
fixion. How it must thrill the souls of men who 
have been privileged to gaze upon Leonardo Da 
Vinci's Last Supper, or Rembrandt's Supper at 
Emmaus. Whose heart has not been touched by 
Holman Hunt's Light of the World. Who can not 



140 CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 



sense better the bitter fruits of envy and political 
intrigue after looking upon Munkacsy's Christ Be- 
fore Pilate. What holy thoughts surge through 
one's soul as he beholds the Nativity by Botticelli 
or the Annunciation by Fra Angelico, or the Ado- 
ration of the Magi by Correggio. With how 
mighty a grip did the idea of sin and redemption 
hold the world's attention after Velasquez gave to 
the world his Man of Sorrows, or Signorelli and 
Luini painted their Crucifixion. 

Every great event in the life of our Lord from 
the Annunciation to the Ascension is immortalized 
on canvas. Giotto and Donatello, Van Dyck and 
Millet will shine forever in the world of art because 
they caught their inspiration from the service and 
deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. 

" Strange that a harp of a thousand strings 
should keep in tune so long," and yet as the years 
pass by the world still looks and says from the 
heart, " Him first, Him last, Him midst and with- 
out end." 

Jesus stands in all things pre-eminent in His in- 
fluence upon civilization. No other character in 
history has left such an imprint upon society. The 
world glories in the brave deeds and the splendid 
personalities of her leaders. There is a stimulus 
from them which guides humanity in its upward 
climb. A Pericles or a Homer, a Savonarola, or 
a Lincoln, a Tennyson, or a Keats add quality and 
inspiration to the warp and woof of civilization. 



CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 141 



Humanity is quick to recognize true merit in ser- 
vice and character, especially as she judges them in 
the light of years. The world owes a great debt to 
its noble men. What a wonderful line of march 
they present in science, literature, invention, states- 
manship and religion, but as they pass by in tri- 
umphal procession, standing like a tower among 
them all is the simplicity, the genius, the philoso- 
phy, the sinless life of Jesus of Nazareth. Carlyle 
ranks well among the roll call of the great, but he 
declared that "the life and death of the Divine 
Man in Judea brought the tidings of the most im- 
portant event ever transacted in this world." John 
Ruskin has had few equals as a writer of prose and 
he declared that his life had been dedicated to an 
interpretation of the truth and beauty of Jesus 
Christ rather than "a study of the beautiful in 
face and flower, in landscape and valley." 

The world's greatest thoughts have centered 
about the Christ and the master minds of history 
have united to do Him reverence. All the poets 
who have known Him seem to join in saying: 

" Thou seemest human and divine 
The highest, holiest, manhood Thou 
Our wills are ours, we know not why 
Our wills are ours to make them Thine." 

Finally, the Lord Jesus stands pre-eminent as the 
One to whom we can go for heart relief from the 
thraldom of Sin. O the comfort, the peace which 
comes from the Soul of Christ. What an inspira- 



142 CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 

tion He has been to millions of His devoted follow- 
ers. And herein does His divine nature present 
itself with heart-searching power. Humanity is 
far too discerning to have worshipped a merely 
human being so long. His piety and character are 
radically different from that of other men. He is 
in a class by Himself. Once, let some one of our 
fellowmen claim the sinless, guiltless life and ask 
humanity to come to him for forgiveness and right 
soon would his religious attitude be subjected to 
the world's scorn rather than its reverent worship. 
But not so with Jesus, the world comes to Him 
because His life was perfect, His teachings simple 
and profound, His philosophy of forgiveness 
brings relief, and His atonement truly reconciles 
the sinful soul to God. 

Shall we not take Him today and make Him pre- 
eminent in our lives, foremost in our thoughts, an 
example for our actions and a Redeemer for our 
souls and as life unfolds before us may our prayer 
be from the heart : 

" Oh, turn me, mould me, mellow me for use, 
Pervade my being with Thy vital force, 
That this else inexpressive life of mine 
May become eloquent and full of power, 
Impregnated with life and strength divine. 
Put the bright torch of heaven into my hand, 
That I may carry it aloft, 

And win the eye of weary wanderers here below 
To guide their feet into the paths of peace. 
I cannot raise the dead, 
Nor from this soil pluck precious dust, 



CHRIST'S PRE-EMINENCE 143 



Nor bid the sleeper wake, 

Nor still the storm, nor bend the lightning back, 
Nor muffle up the thunder, 

Nor bid the chains fall from off creation's long unfet- 
tered limbs. 
But I can live a life that tells on other lives, 
And makes this world less full of anguish and of pain. 
A life that like the pebble dropped upon the sea 
Sends its wide circles to a hundred shores. 
May such a life be mine. 

Creator of true life, Thyself the life Thou givest, 
Give Thyself, That Thou mayst dwell in me, and I in 
Thee." 



XIII 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 

"Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted 
among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth'' — 
Psalm 46:10. 

THE forty-sixth Psalm is an appeal to the 
child of God to be calm and feel a sense of 
security in the midst of the world's turbu- 
lence and unrest. It perhaps bears reference to the 
remarkable deliverance of the people of God from 
the hosts of Sennacherib. It has in it a triumphant 
note as well as a soul appeal, and this tenth verse, 
" Be still and know that I am God," I would have 
you meditate upon as reverently we think together 
concerning the personality of Jehovah. 

We open our Bibles to the first verse of Genesis 
and read, " In the beginning God ." It is un- 
thinkable not to have a beginning for ourselves or 
the world. So the average man must postulate God 
in order to have a starting point for his reasoning, 
and in order that his thoughts may culminate on 
some definite goal. So I will assume a First Cause, 
who started everything and who is the author of 
man, the world and the heavens, together with all 
that is therein. I shall postulate Jehovah as exist- 
ing. " There is a first cause because there must 

144 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



145 



be." It is one thing to believe in a supreme being 
and another thing to believe in a personal God. 

Now comes the question. What kind of a being 
is Jehovah? Is He a being at all ? Is our Creator 
a far-away, unintelligent force ? Is He some pow- 
erful influence who in some inexplicable manner 
has wrought out the wonders we behold and to 
whose beginning we ascribe the power of all things 
we know we did not bring into being? Is God an 
entity with the requisites of personality? Is He a 
spirit whom to worship acceptably must be wor- 
shipped in spirit and in truth? Is He "infinite, 
eternal, and unchangeable in His Being, Wisdom, 
Power, Holiness, Justice, Goodness and Truth ? w 
If that definition be correct, then God is a person. 
If the Westminster Divines were misguided and the 
Bible is untrue, then Jehovah is to us an unknown. 

I realize the tremendous depth of this subject 
and that one cannot always wade with his feet on 
solid ground. But I likewise feel that, while one is 
obliged to swim as it were, he can have a definite 
goal and at last plant his feet of faith upon a solid 
shore. 

I have no desire to engage in an imaginary con- 
troversy or debate. My purpose is not merely to 
argue. My sincere wish is to bring you a little 
closer to God as your Father. If you have been 
troubled or perplexed and are helped in anywise, I 
shall be glad. For what is presented will be my 
own heart experiences. 



146 IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



To me God is a living entity, a personal being 
and I am going to tell why I believe this to be true, 

First of all, I feel myself to be a self-conscious 
personality. I am differentiated from the other 
beings I behold about me. I judge what they are 
in some measure by what I know myself to be. I 
find myself to possess Intellect, Sensibility and 
Will to a sufficient degree to assume personality. 
How this personality came and in what manner I 
obtained that of which I find myself in possession 
is known by me to a very limited degree. People 
say I was born. I believe that I was. I have testi- 
mony to that fact, which is convincing to me, and 
then I know how other people are born, and as I 
seem to be like other people in most respects, I 
reached the conclusion that my birth took place 
somewhat as did theirs, and yet I do not remember 
the day I was born. Witnesses testify that I was 
once a prattling babe ; that I cooed and smiled and 
wept just as most babies do. I do not remember 
when I played with a rattle. My first recollection 
of myself as a self-conscious being was at an age 
of two years and three months, but from that day 
to this I have quite vivid recollections of my life's 
experiences. 

In addition to my possession of intellect, I find 
that I possess what is called Love. I can recall my 
early affections for my mother and her peculiar 
yearnings of heart for me. No one had to prove to 
me that she was my mother. No one ever had to 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



147 



prove to me that she loved me. Perhaps I could 
not mathematically demonstrate that fact now, but 
it is just as satisfying a knowledge as that which 
she possesses, and she knows. I cannot prove to 
others that I love my mother save by my actions, 
and people judge the love of others from the love 
they have in their own hearts. I have found as the 
years pass by that the love I have for my mother is 
different from the love I have for my wife ; that the 
love I have for my wife is different from the love 
I have for my boys ; the love I have for my boys is 
different from the love I have for my friends, and 
the love I have for my friends is different from the 
love I have for my country. Yet I feel that it all 
comes from the same fountain which I find spring- 
ing up in my soul, which, when my life developed, 
was there. I know not how. 

I find that as I develop I can manifest the power 
of selection. That choice in many ways is free. I 
can exercise my will in many ways untrammeled ; I 
can make the acts of my life go contrary to the 
laws of God and the state and my friends, if I so 
will and am willing to take the risk of the punish- 
ment which follows the violation of law and the 
offense of friends. Thus I find myself possessing 
the prime requisites of personality, Intellect, Sensi- 
bility and Will. As I behold others walking about 
as free moral agents I ascribe to them personality, 
because of what I find myself to be. Now, all these 
I possess. I have a personal knowledge concerning 



148 IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



them and a conviction of mind concerning the per- 
sonality of others. Then the question comes : 
Whence this personality which I possess? Who 
originated it ? Who gave it to me and to millions 
of others whom I observe walking about this planet 
keeping me company? For I give every evidence 
to myself and others as being an effect. Something 
caused me, and that which caused me and millions 
like me, had personality, for you cannot get person- 
ality out of a non-entity. Whoever was the origi- 
nal cause of me and my fellow men possessed 
intellect, sensibility and will. I say " in the begin- 
ning God— — ." To me he could be no other than 
a person. "There is a first cause because there 
must be." 

Again I find myself with two eyes. I can behold 
objects with either or both. Yet as I contemplate 
upon my physical eyes, I realize that it is not they 
that see. It is my soul that sees. I have two ears, 
normal in their functions. Sound waves reach my 
brain and I hear, yet I know it is not the bits of 
gristle at the sides of my head that hear, nor a mere 
physical mechanism within that hears. It is the 
soul that hears. The same soul that sees and loves 
and wills. Whoever created that eye and that ear, 
whoever planted that spirit of love in my soul had 
an idea of them all before they were manifested in 
me, just as much as an architect has a house in his 
mind before he places a plan in outline upon a blue 
print. Whoever made me and the world of nature 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



149 



about me had in him, not only life and law and 
plan, but personality. 

Now, just as my own personality, of which I am 
conscious, brings me closer to the God in whom I 
believe, so a study of the world about me and the 
heavens above me, continue to quicken my faith 
and strengthen my belief. When I behold the 
world in which I live and am taught by scientific 
investigation concerning the planets and heavenly 
bodies, I find everywhere evidence that intellect, 
sensibility and will are indelibly stamped upon 
them. Woven into their every fabric and constitu- 
tion are the marks of the product of personality. 
Some tremendous cause wrought out this effect, 
and it was done with law and order. Everywhere 
there is evidence of a mind beyond the power of the 
human. There is nothing but sane, rational prin- 
ciples in the make-up of the world. Ah, my friends, 
the more I study nature with all its marvels and 
beauties of plan, the more I observe its laws and 
growth, the longer I gaze into the firmament, the 
more I can repeat with the Sweet Singer of Israel : 

" When I look up into the heavens which Thine 
own finger framed, unto the moon and stars which 
were by Thee ordained, then I say, ' what is man 
that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man 
that Thou visit est him. Thou hast made him a lit- 
tle lower than the angels and hast crowned him 
with glory and honor. O Lord, our Lord, how 
excellent is Thy name in all the earth.' " 



150 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



This is not all. I find that I not only possess a 
body as a marvellous human mechanism with its 
nerves, its blood, its bones and its flesh, but this 
body works in conjunction with my soul in a per- 
fect co-operative union. There is a duality in my 
human existence. Man is constituted body and 
spirit and both are real, so that my personality is 
not only self-conscious ; that is, I know I am I, and 
that I am the same person I was thirty years ago 
in spite of the changes in both my body, my mind 
and my environment, but I know that I am a free 
person. Although subjected to law, I can weigh 
propositions pro and con and decide on my own 
volition. In addition to all this, I find deep set in 
my soul a sense of obligation. A voice speaks out 
in my soul and says, " You ought to do this and 
you ought not to do that," and my personality ap- 
proves or condemns my action in accordance as 
I follow my sense of right and wrong. There- 
fore, I find in my personality a moral nature, and 
I believe that whoever created me was a moral 
person. Thus I could go on and on in my phys- 
ical, mental and spiritual experiences and seek to 
account for them, but I cannot ascertain their 
origin in any way satisfactory to my mind than 
by ascribing their source to an omnipotent, omnis- 
cient and omnipresent spirit, and I ask you this 
day to be thoughtful creatures and study your 
own selves, and I believe that you will be led, as 
I have, to love, to honour and to adore God 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



151 



Almighty, not only as your creator, but as a kind 
and loving benefactor. " Our Father, which art 
in Heaven." 

It is natural for man to worship. Unless his 
mind becomes warped, instinctively he turns his 
soul to a higher power, and becomes like that which 
he worships. If he has a low, vague idea of God, 
then he grovels in uncertainty. But when he exalts 
God to His proper place and seeks to pattern his 
fife after Him and strives to do His will, such soul 
action always produces an elevating effect upon 
himself and society about him. For your own 
sake, therefore, strive to obtain a lofty idea of 
your God. 

The personality of God may have perplexed you 
because it is so deep and you say, " Oh, well, I 
cannot understand God and I do not expect to try." 
Ah, but you should attempt to know more about 
Him. Of course, the finite cannot grasp all the 
deep purposes of the Infinite. We should not ex- 
pect it. Indeed, we would not wish to worship 
One whom we felt did not know more than we 
know. We cannot comprehend God, but we can 
apprehend Him to a limited degree, and He has 
promised that if we study Him, He will be re- 
vealed. You look into a pool of water and there 
you see revealed the image of the sun. That image 
tells you first of all the nature of the sun, its light, 
and its heat rays, but it does not tell you all about 
the sun, so you look at yourself and at man and at 



152 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



nature and they have indelibly stamped upon them 
the image of Almighty God, but they do not tell 
you all about God, although they do reveal some- 
what of His nature. Therefore, you do not know 
all about yourself, but the more you study, the more 
you know, and God is rich unto all that call upon 
Him and the more you study Him, the more He 
will reveal Himself to you. 

Down in the power house of our electric com- 
pany there run continually powerful dynamos. 
They generate electric currents, which, conducted 
by proper wiring, reveal themselves in light, heat 
and power. In order, however, for this heat, light 
or power to manifest itself in some individual 
light, stove or motor, it must be properly con- 
ducted. A slight break in a connecting wire may 
render the whole plant useless for us. So it is 
with God. It is possible for us to separate our- 
selves from Him and cut off our lives from His 
life and power. Is your life connected with the 
great Life of God? Does it pulsate with quicken- 
ing power ? Does it reflect a portion of the divine 
light of the world? Does it warm the soul of other 
people with whom it comes in contact, or is it cold 
and frigid in its chilliness? Has God so faded 
from your life that He means nothing to you? Is 
prayer an empty form and meaningless to your 
soul? No life remains stationary either in actions, 
knowledge or experience. God Almighty will get a 
great deal more or a great deal less from your life 



IS THERE A PERSONAL GOD? 



153 



from this day forth. Whether He obtains little or 
much will depend largely on what the attitude of 
your life is toward Him and His religion. I be- 
seech you, therefore, study God. He is a worth- 
while proposition for you, and the study will mean 
satisfaction to your soul, and the lack of it an ir- 
reparable loss. That soul without faith in a per- 
sonal God is stranded on a barren shore with no 
hope and no definite goal either in this life or 
eternity. But that soul who looks up by faith unto 
a Heavenly Father can find real peace and joy. 

I visited one who had not long for this life. 
With a courageous smile he took me by the hand 
and looking into my eye said : " I did want to live, 
but I am not afraid to die." And I say to you that 
peace and confidence in the face of the grim mes- 
senger came only through a living faith in a living 
God. 

The clearest, most self-evident revelation of the 
reality and power of God, the best evidence of His 
mercy, His loving kindness, His longsuflfering, His 
justice and His love is to be found in the matchless 
life and career of His only begotten Son. Christ 
came into the world to show us what God was and 
is. He was the perfect revelation of Jehovah. As 
the Son, He displayed the likeness of the Father. 
May we put our trust in Him and give to Him and 
His church the very best we have, and then will 
" The whole world round be bound in every way 
by golden chains about the feet of God." 



XIV 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 



" What shall I do then with Jesus which is called 
Christ? " — Matt. 27 -.22. 

T I ^HE broad moon was shedding her silver rays 



through the trees in the Garden of Geth- 



semane. Alone in the unbroken stillness of 
the night the Saviour communed with His Father 
in Heaven. A short distance from Him three of 
His Galilean disciples lay sleeping. 

The scene is a striking one. It is Thursday 
night of Passion Week, the day before the Cruci- 
fixion. A few hours before, Christ and His dis- 
ciples had celebrated the Lord's supper in that 
upper room in Jerusalem. The emblems of His 
Body and Blood had been partaken of by them all 
except the Traitor. Christ's final words of comfort 
and advice had been spoken. The beautiful prayer 
recorded in the 17th chapter of John had been 
uttered. His parting benediction had been given 
and now, accompanied by Peter, James and John, 
He retires to Gethsemane, where in the solitude of 
the night He might commune with His Father and 
receive divine strength to undergo the great trial 
which awaited Him. 

Christ's life work was finished. The service of 




154 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE US 



His short career and the climax of His humiliation 
had been reached. How it would end would de- 
pend upon His decision in the Garden. Three 
times He bids His disciples watch while He prays 
that agonizing* prayer, " O, My Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me." Three times 
He returned only to find those disciples with eye- 
lids closed in slumber. The third time He utters 
that prayer a halo of divine light beams from His 
face; a feeling of triumph enters His soul, and 
with a calm determination He utters those thrilling 
words, " Nevertheless not as I will but as thou 
wilt." Returning to His disciples He bids them 
sleep on and take their rest for the Son of Man 
had been betrayed into the hands of sinners. 

The scene changes. From out the gates of the 
Holy City comes a mob with swords and staves 
piloted by Judas Iscariot. Silently they steal 
through the Garden, only the light from their 
torches making known their approach. Soon they 
confront Christ and His three disciples. The fatal 
kiss betraying the identity of the Saviour is given 
by Judas. The impetuous Peter desires to fight 
with the sword. His Master rebukes him and per- 
forms His last miracle of mercy upon the victim. 
The arrest is made. All Christ's followers forsake 
Him and flee, and the Man of Galilee stands alone 
a prisoner of Rome. The mob hurry Him before 
Annas and thence to Caiaphas, the High Priest, 
where a short trial is given and an irregular meet- 



156 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 



ing of the Sanhedran held, at which only such 
members were in attendance as were known to be 
openly antagonistic to the Saviour. There in that 
Court of the High Priest, the Elders, the Scribes, 
the Sadducees sat and plotted how they might make 
up a case against Jesus. There a packed jury was 
assembled previously instructed to pass in the ver- 
dict " Guilty." There hired witnesses profaned 
the Sanhedrin Court with their falsehoods. There 
the taunting challenge was thrown out to Him, 
"Answerest thou nothing." There it was that 
Jesus answered the question, " Art thou the Christ 
the Son of the Blessed," with the simple words, 
" Thou sayest." There sentence was pronounced 
on Him because of the charge of blasphemy. 
There the Saviour was buffeted and beaten, spit 
upon and insulted — left alone without a friend, and 
ere the morning light had dawned in the Judean 
hills and shed its golden rays above the summit of 
Mt. Olivet, the Saviour stood before the judgment 
bar of that proud, unscrupulous Roman, Pontius 
Pilate. i 

Christ before Pilate! The Son of God before a 
Roman Potentate for judgment! The author of 
all Holiness, Beauty and Love face to face with 
Vice, Crime, Cowardice. The embodiment of Pur- 
ity face to face with Depravity Incarnate. One, 
the representative of Justice, Godliness, and Up- 
right Living; the other, a cruel, unjust, insatiable 
tyrant; Stainless Innocence before Flagrant Guilt, 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 157 



Atrocious Cruelty before Infinite Mercy. Can all 
humanity present a greater contrast? We might 
see a similar one in nature when the sky is overcast 
from the horizon to the meridian with dark clouds 
and the blackness of night, while in the other half 
the moon and stars are shining in all their resplend- 
ent beauty. Or we might see it in the social life 
where unrestrained Passion holds full sway in the 
same community where a prayer service is held. 
Or we might find it when two souls go to the great 
beyond. One, in the joys of salvation the result of 
a Christ life; the other, entering eternity, his mind 
deranged, enduring the excruciating agony of delir- 
ium tremens. It is only by thinking of a series of 
contrasts that we can appreciate the significance of 
the scene of Christ before Pilate. Farrar says that 
the trial of Christ was really a three fold one. " It 
involved a three fold change of scene. A three 
fold accusation, a three fold acquittal by the Ro- 
mans, a three fold rejection by the Jews, a three 
fold warning to Pilate and three fold effort on his 
part, made with ever increasing energy and ever 
deepening agitation to baffle the accusers and set 
the prisoner free." 

As one has said, " Pilate was in a dilemma. 
There was a prisoner in his court with which he 
did not know what to do." In the first place Pilate 
felt reasonably sure that the prisoner was innocent, 
for "he knew that for envy they (the Jews) had 
delivered him." By right therefore he should be 



158 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 



given his liberty. Pilate also hated the Jews on 
account of the trouble they had caused him, and he 
would gladly have given Christ His liberty, even 
had he known Him to be guilty. But Pontius 
Pilate was not the man to let the principles of right 
and justice prevail where such a course would 
throw him in ill favor with the Jews. He hated 
them, but he loved his office more. Guilty or not 
' he would have released Christ could he have done 
so without causing the Jews' anger to react upon 
him. What cared he who the prisoner was! He 
would sentence him or let him go according as it 
best suited his own selfish ends. What cared he 
that Jesus Christ was King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords ! All he wanted was to hold to that Roman 
Procuratorship. What cared he that Christ had 
preached the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace all 
over that hill country? Pilate did not accept this 
new Gospel. Rome's religion was his religion, if 
he had any. Rome's customs were his customs. 
Every characteristic of a Roman save that of 
Justice was embodied in the life of Pontius Pilate. 

But although Pilate had resolved to decide 
Christ's case in whatever way best suited his own 
interests, he was evidently touched by the wonder- 
ful character of his prisoner. Drowned as was his 
conscience in Roman vice the divine presence had 
aroused it, and he seeks to shift the responsibility 
of passing sentence upon Christ. He accordingly 
sends the Saviour to Herod. But that crafty mon- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 159 



arch refuses to come to Pilate's aid, and after deep- 
ening the agony of the victim, he returns Christ in 
royal purple to the court of Pilate. However, 
Pilate sees another way of escape. The custom of 
the Roman Government had been to release on the 
feast day a prisoner of the people's choice. Here 
was Pilate's opportunity! He had heard many 
rumors concerning Christ's wonderful life, and 
knowing that He was held in high esteem by the 
populace he felt sure that public opinion would set 
the Saviour free and he by the will of the people 
would be relieved. So he brings Barabbas before 
them, a man whose character was in such striking 
contrast to that of Jesus that he felt sure there 
would be no doubt of their decision, a robber, an 
insurrectionist, a murderer, and says, " whether of 
the twain will ye that I release unto you 99 ? And 
the mob cried, " Barabbas ! " " What shall I do 
then with Jesus, which is called Christ ? " The 
mob shouted, " To the Cross, To the Cross ! " Ah, 
envy that stranger to mercy, that foe to kindness; 
envy that knows no pity, no love, that buries truth 
and justice ; envy had conquered. The Man whose 
birth had been heralded by an angel choir, who 
could answer the argument of a Jewish Rabbi at 
the age of twelve years ; who had healed their sick, 
cast out Devils, fed vast multitudes, even raised the 
dead, was rejected and a murderer chosen in his 
stead. 

Pilate then makes one final effort. He appeals to 



160 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 



their sympathy, he tries to arouse their pity. 
Bruised and bleeding he presents Christ before 
them, a picture that would have melted a heart of 
stone. But they had gone too far. With a uni- 
versal shout they cry, " Let Him be crucified/' and 
Pilate, hypocritically washing his hands before 
them all, gives the desired sentence. Ah, little did 
Pilate know that by that act he was making possible 
the greatest tragedy in the world's history. Little 
did he dream as he put the question to his prisoner. 
" What is Truth," that Truth incarnate stood be- 
fore him. Little did he know that he was sending 
to the cross a man who was bearing the sins of the 
world. As long as the world shall stand, until the 
angel of heaven shall declare that time shall be no 
more, the verdict of the world will be that Pontius 
Pilate's sentence of Jesus Christ to the Cross was 
the act of a man facing a great moral problem in 
his life and lacking the moral courage to do what 
he knew to be right ! 

" What shall I do with Jesus? " Pilate asked the 
Jewish mob. Instead of doing what he knew to be 
right he allowed himself to be influenced through 
fear of the envy of the Jews. " If thou let this 
man go thou art not Caesar's friend," was the turn- 
ing point for Pilate, and he gave the sentence. We 
all know what followed. How the crown of thorns 
was placed upon the Saviour's brow, how He bore 
His cross to Calvary's brow and there was crucified 
between two thieves ; how the superscription truth- 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 161 



fully told who He was ; how with a loud cry " It is 
finished," His spirit was set free; how He was 
buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. 
We have read how the two Marys came to the 
sepulchre in the dawn of the morning and heard 
the angel say, " He is not here, He is risen." We 
have read of His walk to Emmaus, of His different 
appearances to His disciples and above five hun- 
dred people at one time; of His convincing the 
doubting Thomas of His divine personality; and 
finally of His ascension from Olivet leaving as a 
parting benediction to all humanity, " Lo I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." 

But little of Pilate's history is known. Legend 
has it that he was soon deposed from the Roman 
court, and died a suicidal death. As we think of 
the words, " We must all appear before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ." We cannot but picture to our 
minds that scene when the spirit of Pilate took its 
flight and appeared before the heavenly judgment 
seat. How different the picture from a few short 
years before! Then, it was Christ before Pilate; 
now, it is Pilate before Christ ! No more will he 
rule in his palace of sin. No more will he execute 
Caesar's mandates. His soul is ushered into his 
Maker's presence. Time has ceased. Eternity is 
before him. Pilate before Christ ! ! The cringing 
time-server, the deposed ruler, the bold skeptical 
tyrant has been laid low by sin and death. He now 
stands where Innocence holds sway, where Truth 



162 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 



which he sought to bury in the grave arises and 
witnesses against him, and points her finger at his 
conscience, once dead, but now awakened. He 
stands before a throne where Justice holds the 
scepter and will gain her plain, impartial sentence, 
the record of his life. Pilate must give an account 
of his cowardice. He must show how in his earthly 
judgment he gave Innocence no opportunity. He 
must show why he allowed envy to triumph. Ah, 
thou haughty Roman, thou proud ambitious mon- 
arch, thou who sought to shift the responsibilities 
of life, thou who spurned Justice and Mercy and 
sent Innocence to the gallows, thou must answer 
for thy past life before the judgment bar of God ! 

This scene of Christ before Pilate, and Pilate 
before Christ has been presented because it is a true 
picture in life today. " What shall I do with 
Jesus," is a question which gives expression to the 
greatest problem of life. Pilate had no interest in 
Jesus and yet he was compelled to make a decision. 
So it is with every man today. Jesus Christ stands 
at the judgment bar of your heart, and what will 
you do with Him? You must make a decision. 
You cannot shift the responsibility upon some 
Herod of the world. This is an individual re- 
sponsibility and you must accept or reject, acquit or 
convict Him, whether you desire to or not. Every 
man must answer the question, " What shall I do 
with Jesus " ? It is different with the problems of 
the world. There are many of them before us. In 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 163 



selecting a life work we can choose the one best 
adapted to our taste and station. We are not called 
upon to decide all the problems of men. We are 
not called upon to decide who was the greatest 
general, Napoleon, Hannibal, or Caesar. It matters 
little to us who was the greater orator, Demos- 
thenes or Cicero. Our lives and our destinies do 
not enter into such questions. We are obliged to 
decide what we will do with Jesus because He 
enters into all our lives. Just as the optician holds V 
up a color to test our vision so Christ tests our 
moral eyes to see if their vision is clear. There is 
a time in every man's life when he passes judgment 
upon Christ. A man might just as well try to live 
in this world and have nothing to do with his fel- 
low man, as to try to live and have nothing to do 
with Christ. Christ, who lived but thirty-three 
years and accomplished more than all humanity 
had for ages. Christ, who caused morality to enter 
into civilization. Christ, whose atoning blood takes 
away man's sin. Christ, who is the author of our 
religion which has borne upon its shoulders the 
great facts of history. Christ, who stands as the 
representative of God's love to man. He it is who 
is presented to us, He it is upon whom we must 
pass judgment. This is religion in a nutshell. 
This is the problem of life in a concrete form, and 
man's answer decides his destiny. 

Many men today are living what they call re- 
spectable moral lives. We ask you this question, 



164. CHRIST BEFOBE PILATE 



" What will you do with Jesus ? " You esteem 
yourselves for your works. You say, " If I live 
an honest upright life, if I pay my debts, am kind 
to my neighbor, am charitable to my fellow man, 
I'm all right. I am just as good as though I united 
with the church, and am even better than many who 
have professed, and I stand just as good chance of 
heaven." But, my friend, there is between you and 
heaven as wide a gulf as that which separated the 
rich man and Lazarus. For in your life there is no 
place for Jesus Christ. He stands for man's re- 
pentance. He stands for man's redemption, He 
stands for the pardon of man's sin. And if you 
could reach heaven without the atoning death of 
Jesus being applied to your life on earth, then why 
did Christ come into the world? What benefit was 
His life on earth and His death on the cross if your 
theory of Salvation be true ? Now, is Christ true 
or false? Is He an imposter or are you wrongs 
Is John 3:16 true, or are these words a lie? Your 
answer decides your destiny. 

To men who have too much work on their minds 
to think about religion, " what will you do with 
Jesus? " Your work is all right, but the spirit in 
which that work is done may be wrong. Christ 
was a busy man. He was never idle. The Gali- 
lean workshop reveals great things to the close 
observer. Remember there is a time coming when 
your work on earth must cease and you will face 
the great beyond, there to give an account of 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE 165 



your works. Then, "What will you do with 
Jesus?" 

To the pleasure lover, " What will you do with 
Jesus ? " To you who are young and to whom as 
yet the great problems of life have not been pre- 
sented, " what will you do with Jesus? " Your 
pleasures may be all right. But can you not have a 
good time and serve Christ ? Do you know of any 
class of individuals happier than the Christians? 
Can you not have a royal good time within the 
bounds of Christ's church? Remember that too 
often pleasure in life is like a soap bubble, it is 
pleasant to look upon while the sun shines, then it 
bursts and is gone forever. 

" What will you do with Jest*€, the call comes low and 
sweet. 

As tenderly He bids you your burdens lay at His feet. 
O Soul so sad and weary, that sweet voice speaks to 
thee, 

Then what will you do with Jesus, O what will your 
answer be?" 



XVI 



MOTHERS' Dx\Y 



"My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and for- 
sake not the Law of thy mother" — Proverbs i :8. 

rTlHIS text is suggestive for the thoughts of 



Mother because no man was ever better pre- 



pared out of a rich experience to teach their 
truth than their author, Solomon. If there is any 
plain, practical problem of living facing mankind 
amid the multiplicity of cares today, which the 
book of Proverbs does not meet and solve for the 
individual, then I have failed to observe it. From 
my earliest recollections this book had been held 
before my eyes as a standard, and its short, plain- 
spoken epigrams are the first words of Holy W rit 
I ever committed to memory. Far back as my mind 
can recall the scenes of mv childhood, I can remem- 
ber sitting on my mother's knee repeating from her 
lips the commandments from the pen of this wise 
old king. All my days there has rung in my ears, 
" Forsake not the Law of thy mother. ,, Perhaps 
there was a special reason for this. My father has 
been dead all my life, and the only laws in the home 
I ever knew were those of my mother. Upon her 
shoulders rested a double responsibility. Around 
our home life clustered that double promise of God 




166 



MOTHERS' DAY 



167 



that He would be the widow's help and the orphan's 
stay. Whenever it is the misfortune of a man to 
lose one of his arms the double activity which the 
remaining arm must undergo makes it stronger 
than it otherwise would have been. So when a boy 
loses his father he naturally showers a double af- 
fection upon his mother and she in turn has an 
extra love for him. While the home love is broken 
on one part it is more strongly linked in the other. 
Therefore by reason of the peculiar home ties 
which exist between us all, let us honour those 
God-fearing women who imparted their life to us, 
guided us tenderly in the days of our youth, were 
our dearest and most sympathetic friends, and 
whose prayers and faithful hearts will follow us 
straight to the throne of God. 

" The Light, the spell word of the heart, 

Our guiding star in weal or woe, 
Our talisman — our earthly chart — 

The sweetest name that earth can know* 
We breathed it first with lisping tongue 

When cradled in her arms we lay- 
Fond memories round that name are hung 

That will not, cannot pass away 
We breathed it then, we breathe it still 

More dear than sister, friend or brother, 
The gentle power, the magic thrill 

Awakened at the name of Mother." 

It is always a hopeful sign when a busy people 
will pause amid the cares of our fast onrushing 
life and turn their thoughts toward something of 



168 



MOTHERS' DAY 



permanence in soul building. Nothing carries 
with it a greater wealth of sentiment or strikes 
a more touching chord of love in the soul than 
this day especially set apart for the whole wide 
world to devote itself with a deep significance 
and a tender meaning to the thoughts, the 
happy memories, and the gracious deeds of our 
mothers. 

It is fitting, that a tribute should be paid to our 
mothers. We lay special emphasis on other days. 
We always welcome the glad New Year. Thous- 
ands of children are made happy on February 14th 
and again on Children's Day. It is fitting that on 
the anniversary of our Lord's Resurrection we 
should meet with joyful hearts for special praise 
and worship. As a nation we glory in our sweet 
spirit of Liberty on Independence Day and pay a 
tribute of Love to our fallen heroes on Memorial 
Day. We gather for the public worship of God at 
the call of our Chief Executive on Thanksgiving 
Day. We honor the world's toilers on Labor Day. 
We give our gifts at Christmas time in honour of 
the Babe who was born in Bethlehem of Judea. So 
amid the beauties and glories of Springtime I know 
of nothing more appropriate than to meet in the 
House of God and do honour to our mothers. 
That mother who always gave to us sweet sym- 
pathy and encouragement; who trained us in the 
ways of righteousness and life; who taught us our 
first prayer; who soothed us in our childhood sor- 



MOTHERS' DAY 



169 



rows ; who kissed away the pains of wounds. Let 
us meet and in the name of that Christ, whose 
story we first learned from our mother's lips, who 
in the last hours of His crucifixion thought of the 
future comfort of His own blessed mother, and 
committed her to the tender care of His faithful 
friend, and beloved disciple, John, in His name let 
us do honour to that one who gave us birth, who 
tenderly watched over us in our cradles, who 
rocked us to sleep at her breast, has cared for us 
all these years, and whose heart devotion and 
kindly interest will follow us and be to us an in- 
spiration and a benediction so long as time shall 
last. 

The two most gracious words in all language, 
the words around which cluster the happiest mem- 
ories, the most sacred associations and the most 
hallowed thoughts, are Home and Mother. That 
old motto which has hung on the walls of so many 
homes, " What is Home without a Mother," is not 
founded on mere sentiment. If it had been it could 
not have permanently endured. It is because the 
mother is the very life and fountain head of the 
home. The idea of her presence as a necessity will 
ever take hold of the heart cockles of mankind. 
The child who in the providence of God is com- 
pelled to grow into mature life without a mother's 
benign influence, without a mother's loving smile, 
a mother's kindly comfort and thoughtful admoni- 
tion, has missed in his life that which can never be 



170 



MOTHERS' DAY 



replaced, the absence of which will ever leave an 
aching void in his heart. God pity the child, the 
bumps of whose little body have never been kissed 
well by a mother's loving lips; whose dishevelled 
hair has never been brushed back from a fevered 
brow by a mother's tender touch; whose mind is 
a blank concerning those hallowed days when at 
his mother's knee he learned his baby prayer, and 
felt her loving hands tuck him away snugly in his 
bed, and as his spirit sank into the arms of that 
sweet repose with which Nature blesses her romp- 
ing children, he could hear his mother's lullaby 
song as sweet music in his ears. Ah, those are the 
memories for which nothing on earth can serve as 
a substitute, and to which the hearts of strong men 
delight to pay loving homage. Next to the saving 
grace of Christ there is nothing which will ap- 
proach the investment of a mother's influence in 
shaping the character of her child and deciding the 
destiny of his soul. 

I know of no great character in history, the light 
of whose life has been a blessed beacon to his 
fellow men, who did not have a good mother. Just 
as water piped from a spring is never purer than 
the fountain from which it gushes, so man's char- 
acter seldom rises higher than the character of the 
mother who went down into the dark shadows to 
give him birth. There is many a man whose name 
will never grace the halls of earthly fame, but 
whose character will shine forever before the eyes 



MOTHERS' DAY 



171 



of God, who can say with Abraham Lincoln, " All 
I am and all I hope to be I owe to the influence and 
teaching of my own blessed mother." Benj. West 
says that "A kiss from my mother made me a 
painter." The reformed faith owes as much to 
Monica, who trained the lad Augustine in the way 
he should go, as it does to the talented theologian 
whose brilliant mind defended the word of God in 
the dark days of the 4th century. Humanity 
should always pay a tribute to Susannah Wesley 
every time they place a laurel upon the brows of 
her illustrious sons, Charles and John. No truth 
has ever been more clearly demonstrated before the 
eye of man than the words of William Ross Wal- I 
lace, " The hand that rocks the cradle rules the 
world." Yes, the mother in the home by her gnid-\ 
ing hand and gentle touch, holds the key which 
unlocks the door of the human soul. Every mother 
unlocks that door and as she enters the heart of her 
child her own life becomes indelibly stamped upon 
it, and there is many a Christian man today who, 
had it not been for the inexpressible love and the 
untiring devotion of his mother would be a wan- 
derer upon the face of the earth and an outcast 
from the best things of the world. 

The average boy will develop into an upright 
citizen of his country, will be honest and straight- 
forward, if he follows the teachings of his mother. 
Many are the times when as a man he faces the 
busy cares of life with its temptations and its dis- 



172 



MOTHERS' DAY 



appointments, that the teachings of his mother in- 
doctrinated within his heart in childhood, prove a 
strong bulwark to him and enable him to throttle 
the tempter. Long after that dear old mother is 
laid to rest, the vacant chair, where once her sacred 
form rocked to and fro, will speak with a silent 
eloquence to his soul and tell him of the duties from 
which he must not shrink, of the burdens he must 
bear, the victories he must win. As the strong man 
gazes at his mother's picture and sees that tender 
eye, that furrowed brow, the sweetest face in all 
the world, it causes the hot blood to start through 
his veins as he thinks of the long years since he 
took her hand in his and pressed his lips upon her 
cheek, and as he gazes at her kindly features he 
renews his vow that for her sake he will continue 
to live close to the God his mother taught him and 
after whose example she lived. Yes, " When God 
thought to give the sweetest thing in His almighty 
power to earth; and deeply pondering what it 
should be — -one hour in fondest joy and love of 
heart outweighing every other, He moved the gates 
of Heaven apart and gave to earth — a mother." 

The word of God teems with strong references 
concerning mothers. At the dawn of history Adam 
named his wife, Eve, because " she was the mother 
of all living." Jehovah promised a special blessing 
unto Sarah, the wife of Abraham, because she was 
the " Mother of Nations." Solomon, in this same 
book of Proverbs, describes a generation of man- 



MOTHERS' DAY 



173 



kind as reaching its lowest depths of perfidy and 
dishonour, in cursing its father and blessing not its 
mother. How many beautiful examples of moth- 
erhood we find in the Bible ! What greater exam- 
ple of parental solicitude could we find than the 
story of the childhood days of Moses? What a 
world of meaning can be read between the lines as 
we peruse the life of Samuel, the child of his 
mother's prayers, and read where Hannah made 
for her son " a little coat." All through the Bible 
there are touching references from the days when 
the holy prophet restored the child to life, and laid 
him in his mother's arms, down to the days when 
Paul recognized that the true piety in the soul of 
Timothy was due to the faithful instructions in the 
Word of God which the boy had received from his 
mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. 

In thus paying a tribute to our mothers we are 
putting the emphasis where the Bible places it. 
Experience in life teaches us that no one can meas- 
ure the influence of a mother. The greatest insti- 
tution for good in all the world is the church of 
Christ. The life of the church is that stream of 
humanity which pours from the homes of our coun- 
try, where the Christian mothers rule as queens and 
watch after the Christian training of their children. 
The Christian home is the nursery of the church. 
The citizenship of this nation and the religious 
spirit of the church always has measured its stand- 
ards by the standards of the home. Therefore if 



174 



MOTHERS' DAY 



we can persuade the boys and girls of today to 
" forsake not the laws of their mothers," the future 
welfare of the church and nation is safe. It is an 
old saying, " Just as the twig is bent, the tree's in- 
clined." But who shapes that twig, who sends that 
tender branch, who drops that flexible character 
into its mould? The Mother. Study the moral 
man of today, the man outside the church, who is a 
good man, and stands for the best things, who 
declares that he believes in the mission of the 
church and yet does not identify his spiritual life 
with it. Study his life history and nine times out 
of ten you will find that he was reared to manhood 
in a home where the mother was a Christian and 
to her godly life and teaching he owes whatever 
inclinations to good there is in him. Therefore to 
the Sons, young and old, I appeal to you to forget 
not the law of your mothers; the teachings of that 
mother who loved you as a toddler; who sympa- 
thised with you in your awkward age ; who piloted 
your bark through many dangerous courses of 
young manhood's rapids ; and whose love and pride 
and prayers follow you now that you are a man. 
You say that you love your mother. I know you 
do, and I feel very sure that your love is a sincere 
love. But, after all, do you love her life or rever- 
ence her memory sufficiently to keep the laws of 
right living which she taught you. Do you love 
your mother sufficiently to answer her prayers in 
the light of sincere conduct? Do you love her 



MOTHERS' DAY 



175 



enough to appreciate the fact that " forsaking not 
her law," will develop your life for eternity? May 
we as sons have the laws of our mothers bound 
about our necks, and written upon the tables of our 
hearts. May our mother's firmness, her gentleness, 
her deep consciousness of what is right be our 
estimate of what should be embodied in an upright 
Christian character. 

And, Daughters, I appeal to you, " Forsake not 
the law of thy mother." That mother who looks 
upon you as the apple of her eye; who has im- 
parted to you so many of her fine Christian graces ; 
whose deft fingers have played such an important 
part in your personal appearance ; and whose moral 
character and intellectual astuteness have imparted 
to you those splendid qualities of mind and heart so 
essential to true womanhood. Ah, the labour of 
love our mothers have wrought out for us ! All of 
us could work till eternity's dawn and never half 
repay her. How unselfish she has been. She al- 
ways thought of others, not herself. What dainty 
meals she cooked ; how many times her hands have 
led us to the cookie jar. How clean she kept the 
house and how neatly she patched our clothes. 
How much she denied herself to make us happy. 
How tenderly she rubbed our bruises and watched 
over us in our childhood ills. No : we cannot repay 
our debt to her, but as children, as of the king, we 
can remember that " The best monument that a 
child can raise to his mother's memory is that of a 



176 



MOTHERS' DAY 



clean upright life, such as she would have rejoiced 
to see her sons and daughters live." 

Now, just a closing message to the Mothers who 
1 are training the manhood and womanhood of our 
I country. With gladness will I pay a tribute of love 
to the memories of those blessed mothers who have 
gone home to glory. To you who remain for pres- 
ent duties, great responsibilities rest upon you. 
What you are in character and life that will your 
children be. For the love you have bestowed upon 
us out of the unfathomable depths of mother 
hearts, we, as your children, thank you. For the 
prayers you have offered for our protection and 
safety, and the religious spirit you have instilled 
within us we shall never cease to express our grati- 
tude to God. You have set before your children a 
beautiful example of unselfishness. You have 
reared in the home a shrine at which we reverently 
worship. Your presence has always been for our 
lives a refreshing joy and your cheerful smiles and 
hopeful spirits have banished from our hearts the 
darkened solitude of care and disappointment. 
Within the coming years may your lives grow mel- 
low in the continued service of love, and as your 
children grow to mature life and go out to bless 
the world, may they carry with them a full measure 
of your love, your sacrifice, your loyalty to God 
and Home. The pendulum of time is slowly swing- 
ing over your lives, and bringing with its measured 
strokes, hairs that are white, hands that are 



MOTHERS* DAY 



177 



wrinkled, steps that are faltering. But rest assured 
that the older you grow the more we love you and 
the longer we live the more we appreciate you. 
May the blessings of God accompany you and 
yours. Around your heads may there rest the halo 
of the glory of Christ, and may happiness be your 
lot, and no sorrow or strife creep in to destroy your 
peace of mind. When in a ripe old age you are 
gathered home, may the angels of God accompany 
your spirits to a fairer clime where you shall meet 
Him whom you have served so long and so well ; 
where there shall be " no night," " no rust to cor- 
rupt and no canker to blight," and where in the 
joys of a heavenly service you shall be glorified and 
" nevermore grow old." 



XVI 



YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE 



Your reasonable service." — Romans 12:1. 



HRISTIANITY is a religion of doctrine. It 



embodies many dogmas difficult to explain. 



Christianity is likewise a religion of creed 
and the different beliefs clustering around the doc- 
trines of Scripture have divided the Church into 
denominations for centuries. But the foundation 
stones of all Evangelical Christianity are practically 
the same. The doctrine of Justification by Faith, 
the blood theology of the Atonement, the Bible as 
an infallible rule of Faith and Practice are every- 
where recognized by the followers of our Lord. 

What the religion of Christ must do, there fore* 
is to discern the great fundamentals of the Gospel 
and build the structure of Christian character and 
life upon them. For whatever Christianity may 
be — a religion of doctrine, a religion of creed- 
there is one thought which should ever have pre- 
eminence in the minds of men : that the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ is a religion of life. Christ is no 
longer dead ; He is alive, and His principles of life 
are worthy of attention and capable of a sane, 
practical application to the duties of the hour and 
to the problems of today. 




178 



" YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 179 



What the world needs today is not a philosoph- 
ical speculation about the Atonement, but a prac- 
tical application of the blood of Christ to the sins 
of men ; what the world needs today is not a cold, 
barren, empty, blighted, fruitless theology, but a 
warm, hearty, helpful, social, Christian life. What 
the world needs is less of the " letter of the Law," 
and more of the fruits of salvation ; less idle dream- 
ing and stronger motives for consecration; less 
sham and more sincerity; less hypocrisy and more 
active Christian service. Christ does not ask of 
you and of me a dead sacrifice laid upon an altar, 
'but He asks for a human soul, alive for God, with 
its energies and its intellect, its moral and spiritual 
powers, performing their proper functions, to the 
end that something may be accomplished for His 
Kingdom, 

No man ever saw this truth in religion with 
clearer vision than the Apostle Paul. In this letter 
to the Romans he has outlined God's plan of Salva- 
tion. In the first eleven chapters he lays special 
emphasis on doctrine. He shows how essential it is 
to man's spiritual well being. At the same time he 
knew what a hollow mockery it all would be unless 
practically applied to daily life. As a result follow- 
ing his doctrinal message comes an outline of the 
Christian graces and duties. He declares that the 
basis of all Christian virtue is Entire Consecration, 
and the fruit of a consecrated life is a reasonable 
service for God. 



180 "YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE" 



Now a service implies a labor performed in the 
interest and under the direction of someone else. 
Service for God, therefore, is a work done for Him 
out of a sense of devotion, privilege and duty. A 
work that is fair and rational ; a work that involves 
self-denial — a living sacrifice. Let us discuss to- 
gether, then, a Reasonable Service for God : As it 
has reference to Sacrifice; as it requires a personal 
touch between the Server and the Served ; as it in- 
cludes the characteristics of the Soldier; as it 
involves wrestling in the open arena of life, and as 
it necessitates a tenacity of purpose. 

First, a Service which involves Sacrifice must be 
both useful and necessary. Otherwise there will 
be no revelation of Love. If you were out rowing 
on a river, and in no danger from the water, and a 
friend called from the bank and said : " I am now 
going to show my love for you by giving up my life 
for you," and thereupon plunged into the water 
and drowned himself, would you look upon that 
sacrifice as a revelation of his love, or would you 
consider it the act of a deranged mind? You 
would say : " The sacrifice was both useless and un- 
necessary." How different it would be if you were 
in danger. If the boat were upset and you were 
drowning and your friend, realizing it, plunged in 
and saved your life at the cost of his own. There 
would be throughout your life a loving gratitude 
toward him and a loving service to his friends. 
You would render this love and service because his 



YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 181 



sacrifice revealed his love ; because you looked upon 
that sacrifice as necessary for the salvation of your 
life — a life you hold in the highest value. My 
friends: Jesus Christ died for you. There is no 
doubt why that sacrifice was made from the view- 
point of Jesus. He declares that its purpose was 
to save your soul. The service you render in the 
future to that Christ, the love and devotion you 
give to Him will depend absolutely on how you 
look upon His death : Whether it was a necessary, 
vicarious sacrifice or whether it was useless. If it 
were necessary, then He is your Saviour, and you 
owe Him a love and a devotion. The question of 
your service will depend on the attitude of your 
life toward His death. May we all hear the Sav- 
iour saying to us : "I gave my life for thee, what 
hast thou given for me." 

The surest route to results in true service is for 
the servant to keep in personal touch with a higher 
authority. The spirit of obedience, together with 
the idea of personal contact, will always yield re- 
sults. A clerk in a store will sell more goods and 
keep in better spirits if the employer has a fre- 
quent personal word with that clerk. The em- 
ployer must have obedience, it is true. He must be 
the dominating spirit in the business, but there 
must be that spirit of interdependence, that oc- 
casional word of encouragement and kindly sym- 
pathy. If an employer desires to discourage a 
clerk, decrease his value to the business and crush 



182 "YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE 



his spirit he will continue to hold himself aloof 
from his employee. 

When I was a lad our family residence was ad- 
jacent to a large railroad system. The terminals of 
two section lines were not far from our home, so 
that I frequently saw both section crews at work in 
the yards and had a personal acquaintance with the 
" Section bosses," as they were termed in my youth- 
ful days. Each of those men was like the Centu- 
rion who came to Christ : a man of authority. They 
said to their men, " Do this," or " Do that," and 
they obeyed, without asking why. This was neces- 
sary, for in railroad work, obedience to a higher 
authority is as essential to order and discipline as 
it is in an army. But the spirit of those commands 
and their effect upon the men was as different as 
night from day. One crew was always in a good 
humour; the other was always sullen. One boss 
gave an occasional " lift " to his men ; the other a 
constant stream of profanity. One man kept in 
personal touch with his men, treated them as he 
would wish to be treated, and at the same time 
made them work and obey. The other lost that 
personal touch and was what his name implied — a 
boss. Human nature rebels at a boss, as does ani- 
mal nature. Even a dog, which knows nothing but 
to obey, can appreciate the difference between a 
kick and a kindly pat on the head in approbation 
for a work well done. 

This personal touch between Master and Servant 



M YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 183 

enters into every avenue of human life; from an 
army on the battlefield to the common laborer of 
the street. Study the life of the Master and you 
will observe that Jesus always kept in personal 
touch with His disciples, and when they did the 
best work for His Kingdom they kept in touch with 
Him. We will always keep in touch with some- 
thing. A man may die unto himself, but he cannot 
live unto himself in this age. He influences and in 
turn is influenced by those with whom he comes in 
contact. How important that personal touch! Dr. 
Gordon tells us that on one occasion he walked out 
from the city of Geneva along the shores of that 
beautiful lake which bears the city's name. Like 
the River Jordan, with the Sea of Galilee the River 
Rhone flows through the waters of Lake Geneva. 
Not far from its outlet, its tributary, the River 
Arve, flows into it. The Arve passes through a 
clay soil which gives its waters a dull, grayish hue, 
while the Rhone has the clear, blue color of the 
lake. For a long distance from their point of con- 
tact the two streams maintain their own color 
although flowing between the same banks: one a 
delicate blue, the other a dull grey. At last they 
blend, and the blue succumbs to the tinge of the 
gray. The reason for the sharp line of distinction 
at first is due to the fact that the Rhone has as its 
source of supply the clear waters from the glaciers 
of the Alps, which passes down the heights and on 
with a rush through the rippling waters of the lake. 



184 "YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 

When long distance separates it from the source of 
supply the Rhone is gradually overcome by the 
muddy stream. 

Out in life today two streams of character flow ! 
One pure, fed from the mountain streams of God ; 
the other, from the foul, filthy streams of the 
world. Sooner or later they will meet and together 
flow on to the ocean of Eternity. Will the pure 
preserve its distinct character? It will depend on 
how close it keeps to its source of supply. It is 
impossible with a river, but it is not impossible with 
a character. God demands the power of your per- 
sonality. God asks for the service of your heart. 
Christ yearns for that personal touch of your life. 
He requires obedience, but He is not a tyrant ruling 
his subjects. He loves us. He sympathizes with 
us, and Christ is always ready to give us that sweet 
personal touch we can pass on to our neighbour. 

" Only a smile, yes, only a smile, 
A woman o'erburdened with grief 
Expected from you. 'Twould have given relief, 
For her heart ached sore the while. 
But cheerless, and weary she went her way, 
Because as it happened that very day, 
You were 1 out of touch ' with your Lord. 

Only a word, yes, only a word, 

The Spirit's small voice whispered ' Speak/ 

But the worker passed on unblessed and weak, 

Whom you were meant to have stirred 

To Devotion and Courage and Love anew 

Because when the message came to you, 

You were ' out of touch ' with your Lord. 



YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 185; 



Only a day, yes, only a day 
But O can you guess my friend, 

Where the influence reaches you and where it will end 

Of the hours you've frittered away? 

'Tis the Master's command, ' Abide in me ' 

And fruitless and vain will your SERVICE be, 

If ' out of touch ' with your Lord." 

Not long since, we made out the statistics of our 
congregation for the General Assembly. That Ec- 
clesiastical body will issue its book of Minutes, in 
which will be accurately tabulated the religious 
work of all our Christian organizations in this 
country. We have on our roll twelve hundred 
names, twelve great companies of religious soldiers. 
Every one of those soldiers has at some time given 
his oath of personal allegiance to Christ, his King. 
Every one has been supplied out of the resources 
of the Kingdom with the " whole armour of God " : 
a girdle, a breast-plate, sandals for the feet, a 
shield, a helmet, and a sword. As we read that 
muster roll our soul was filled with pride. We 
said, " What a magnificent army." What a power 
it might be in a spiritual fight ! " What great 
wealth is held in title sure under that list of names. 
What power of intellect is lodged in those brains! 
There is power enough in that army, if properly 
utilized, to meet any enemy which the Devil may 
array against it, and drive it down to defeat. 
There is righteousness in that army, if consecrated 
with a holy zeal, to revolutionize any community 
where it might pitch its tents. Has it won a 



186 "YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 

victory? Has it given a reasonable service to 
God ? Yes, and No. There are some noble fight- 
ers, liberal givers, skillful strategists, and battle- 
scarred veterans in that army. Wherever it has 
failed it is due to the fact that only a part has been 
in the fight when the battle demanded the entire 
corps. A few have discarded their uniforms, 
others have gone home on a furlough. Some have 
lost their sandals and become footsore on the 
march ; others carry their guns in dress parade and 
go through the motions of a fight, but when the 
real call " To Arms " is sounded they are not found 
in the battle line. As I looked over that roll I 
thanked God for the faithful soldiers and breathed 
the prayer : " O God, make us true-hearted, loyal, 
self-surrendered soldiers of Thine. Take our lives 
out of the dark shades of compromise and lead us 
up the noble heights of soul emancipation. There 
will be hardness to endure, but God forbid that any 
of us shall " shrink from the cross of self-denial." 
There will be responsibilities to meet, but may we 
face them without a flinch. " Consecrate us to Thy 
Service, Lord, by the power of Grace Divine,' ' and 
ere the old year appears only in retrospect may all 
our crowns of righteousness be bedecked with the 
gem of at least one soul." 

" Give us faithful hearts, likeness to Thee 
| That each departing day henceforth may see, 

Some work of love begun, some deed of kindness done, 
Some wanderer sought and won, Something for Thee." 



" YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 187 

Then a reasonable service for God will mean that 
you must wrestle against the antagonists of His 
Kingdom in the open arena of Life. Somewhere 
I have read of the band of forty wrestlers. In a 
cold and frigid climate the decree had gone forth 
that all who refused to pour out a libation to the 
heathen gods should be put to death. Many who 
had owned the Christ had denied Him to save their 
lives. But there was a band of forty earnest, 
Christian, praying men who had resolved to stand 
true to their profession even unto death. They 
were known as the " forty wrestlers." When the 
tidings reached the King by his decree they were 
stripped of their clothing and driven in the night 
out on a frozen lake to die. As they went, they 
went singing: 

" Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Christ. 
O Christ for Thee we win the victory, 
And from Thee we claim the crown." 

A goblet of wine was placed on the shore that 
any who desired might return and save his life by 
pouring out a libation to the gods, and a Centurian 
was stationed on the shore to guard their escape. 
All through the bitter night, kneeling on the ice, 
those martyrs sang: 

"Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Christ"! ! 

One by one their voices were hushed in frozen 
death, until thirty-nine had won the victory and 



188 "YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE 



claimed the crown. In the grey dawn of the morn- 
ing that Centurion who had paced his silent vigil in 
the night saw what he thought in dim outline to be 
the form of a man creeping toward the shore on his 
hands and knees. As the object drew nearer he 
saw that he was not mistaken. One man's courage 
had forsaken him. One's life was dearer to him 
than his Christ. Forgetting that he who saveth his 
life shall lose it and he who loseth his life for 
Christ's sake shall find it, he came dragging him- 
self toward the cup, and with the last energy of his 
wasted strength raised the goblet. But even as he 
lifted it up and poured it out the effort was too 
much and he fell back — dead. 

Just as the Centurion who was stationed at the 
Cross gazed upon the face of the dead Christ, and 
in the light of scenes of that divine tragedy de- 
clared : " Truly this man was the Son of God," so 
this Centurion, as he witnessed that one act of cow- 
ardice, had emphasized upon his mind the bravery 
of the thirty-nine. As he saw the weakness of the 
one and thought of the courage and devotion of the 
others, he was so touched by it all, that in a moment 
of intense earnestness he tore his own clothing 
from him and ran out on that lake to give his life 
with the thirty-nine, crying as he went : 

" Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Christ; 
O Christ for Thee we win the victory, 
And from Thee claim the Crown." 



YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 189 



All about us there are those who are waiting 
just the " personal touch " from your life and mine 
to cause them to come running into the Kingdom 
of God. In life's great service for the Master, 
" We wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but 
against principalities, against powers, against spir- 
itual wickedness in high places." 

Finally, a reasonable service for God demands a 
tenacity of purpose. In my Princeton days one of 
the most interesting struggles of the year was the 
annual " Cane Spree " between the Sophomores and 
Freshmen. And the one lesson which was indelibly 
impressed upon the contestant was : " Never let go." 
Fierce and hard as that struggle was it taught a les- 
son of real worth. Did you ever feel like letting 
go? When lowering clouds of temptation threat- 
ened to storm your life; when you have lost the 
battle for the day; as night drew its sable mantle 
about your soul, have you ever grown discouraged 
and felt ready to desert that banner on which was 
enscribed "For Christ's Crown and Covenant?" 
Then it is that you must take a fresh grip upon 
your life and set your face like a flint ; calling upon 
your reserve power, you must appeal to the heroic 
within you, for it requires dauntless, resolute souls 
to fight and win the great moral battles of the 
world. In the midst of it all I would have you 
catch a vision such as John the Divine saw when 
banished on the Isle of Patmos, he called in the 
name of his Christ to the Church of Philadelphia, 



190 " YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE " 

a message which has echoed round the world: 
" Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take 
thy crown." 

" I want to let go, but I will not let go, 
I am sick it is true, 
Discouraged and blue 
Worn out through and through, 
But I will not let go! ! " 

" I want to let go, but I will not let go, 
There are battles to fight 
By day and by night 
For God and the Right, 
And I will not let go." 

" I want to let go, but I will not let go, 
There's a work to be done, 
There's a race to be run, 
There's a crown to be won, 
And I will not let go! " 

* I want to let go, but I will not let go, 
I never will yield 
What! Lie down on the field 
And surrender my shield? 
No! I'll never let go." 

"I want to let go, but I will not let go, 
Be this ever my song 
'Gainst the legions of wrong, 
O God, make me strong, 
That I may never let go! ! " 



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